The United States stand on top of the final track and field events medal count
The Paris summer Olympics wrapped up with three final days of athletics at the State de France. The United States collected 34 total medals in track and field across the final days, finishing first overall with 14 golds, 11 silvers and 9 bronze.
On day nine of track and field events, more medals were awarded than any day before; However there still were qualifying rounds to get through. From the four qualifying events that took place, four individual athletes from the U.S. qualified along with the men’s and women’s groups for the 4x400m. Byrce Hoppel placed No. 2 in the men’s 800m semifinals and three more U.S. athletes landed in the top four of the women’s 100m hurdles semifinals, with Alaysha Johnson leading the way at No. 1.
In the heptathlon, Anna Hall kept herself in the running for a medal, dropping just a couple spots to No. 5 with 5,567 points. Leading the way was Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam at No. 1 with 5,924 points thanks to a No. 3 finish in the long jump and No. 1 in the javelin throw. The top three rounded out with Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson at No. 2 with 5,803 points and Switzerland’s Annik Kaelin at No. 3 with 5,694 points.
The heptathlon concluded with the 800m, where Hall made a final push, finishing at No. 1 in the event. However, it was not enough to push her onto the podium, as Thiam stayed at No. 1 for the gold and Johnson-Thompson stayed at No. 2 for the silver. This was one of eight medal races on day nine, which was kicked off by the women’s 4x100m relay. The U.S. saw its first medal of the day when the team of Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas and Sha’Carri Richardson won gold with a time of 41.78, just 0.07 seconds in front of Great Britain and 0.19 seconds in front of Germany.
The U.S. snagged another medal in the men’s 400m hurdles, as Rai Benjamin took gold with a time of 46.46, 0.6 seconds in front of Norway’s Karsten Warholm and 0.8 seconds in front of Brazil’s Alison dos Santos.
On day 10, there were no qualifying rounds left as the focus shifted to nine medal races. In the women’s 100m hurdles the U.S. grabbed its first medal of the day, as Masai Russell claimed gold above France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela by just 0.01 seconds and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn by 0.03 seconds. Grant Fisher kept this medal streak going in the men’s 5,000m, ending up on the podium with a bronze medal behind Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi with silver and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen with gold.
The U.S. added to their medal collection as Shelby McEwen took silver in the men’s high jump, scoring behind New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, but above Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim. The U.S. medals kept rolling in, as both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams took home gold. The men’s team of Rai Benjamin, Christopher Bailey, Bryce Deadmon and Vernon Norwood set a new Olympic record time of 2:54.43 in the process. They beat out Botswana at No. 2 and Great Britain at No. 3. The women’s team had a very similar experience, finishing with the second best time in world history at 3:15.27, only 0.1 seconds behind the world record set by the Soviet Union in 1988. This team made up of Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes beat out the Netherlands at No. 2 and Great Britain at No. 3.
The U.S. ended the track and field events with a total of 34 medals, 14 of which were gold. This was the most total and most gold medals won by a country during the track and field events of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Edited by Dylan Heinrich | dheinrich@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com