TOKYO — She got 11 with a little help from her friends.
In her last race as an Olympian, Allyson Felix ran the second leg of the U.S.’s gold-medal winning 4×400-meter relay team, earning her 11th career Olympic medal and passing Carl Lewis as the most decorated American track and field athlete of all time. The USA women ran 3 minutes, 16.85 seconds, the fourth-fastest time ever.
The talent and star power of the U.S. quartet was nearly unprecedented. Felix received the baton from 400-meter hurdles world record holder and gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin and handed off to Dalilah Muhammad, who had the 400 hurdles world record before McLaughlin and won the silver medal here. The anchor was 19-year-old Athing Mu, who won the 800m gold and in June had the fastest 400m leg in NCAA history, 48.85 seconds.
It was the seventh straight Olympics the U.S. women have won the 4x400m. Felix was a member of each of the last four.
Given those names, it was easy to wonder if the 33-year-old world record was in play. The Soviet Union ran 3:15.17 at the 1988 Olympics to edge out the U.S. team for gold; the Americans ran 3:15.51 that year.
Felix is the most decorated female track and field athlete in history. Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi won 12 total Olympic medals across the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Games.
This story will be updated.
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