This has been an adjust-on-the-fly year for Felix: her failure to make the team for the 200 meters, her jaw-dropping silver-medal moment when a diving sprinter from the Bahamas beat her in the 400 and more.
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The tally could have been higher, too, had the US men’s 4×100 team not been disqualified after finishing third in the subsequent final. The victory by the USA marked the first time that a 4×100 team won out of lane 1 at the Olympic Games since the US men did it in 1972.
In a terrific sprint relay race, Great Britain took bronze in a national record of 41.77 as they chased runners up Jamaica home.
It’s a long way from eight years ago in Beijing, when a 23-medal effort led leadership at USA Track and Field to spearhead “Project 30”, with the goal of hitting that mark.
Now, she leaves Rio with a medal of every color, the last image of her crossing the finish line triumphantly carrying a baton as the anchor of the USA 4x100m relay team.
The Nigerian team, led by Blessing Okagbare, came last in the 100m final.
Bartoletta added: “I would like to advocate for nine lanes in championship stadiums just in case this happens because we don’t want to ever be responsible for somebody not achieving their own Olympic goals”. Jamaica finished second in 3:20.34 for the silver medal – one place better than they finished in London.
As so often, Felix’s celebrations were mostly muted but her smile told it all.
But after the baton was dropped, an appeal over Brazilian interference lodged and a weird solo re-run against the clock undertaken, Friday’s final saw the Americans surge home to claim gold ahead of Jamaica and Great Britain in far more orthodox style.
The 4×400 gold was the third Olympic medal for Felix in Rio.
Now that Bowie has confirmed she is the best US sprinter, she wants to give the long jump another try. It now has 27 medals with two days to go, including 10 gold.
Merritt was injured in London in 2012 and was not part of that team.
“I would have been really happy with a silver”, Centrowitz said.
Elaine Thompson and Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the ladies representing Jamaica, came in second at 41.36.
In the end, getting in made all the difference in the world because this was a gold medal team.
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It’s the second fastest time in 4×100 history, and it gives Felix the fifth gold medal of her career.
