TOKYO — At first, it appeared to be just a fun hypothetical: What if Team USA put four of its biggest stars on the women’s 4×400 relay team in Tokyo? What if it drew from runners in three different events to make a sort of super team?
Then, USA Track & Field announced the lineup for the final Saturday night: Sydney McLaughlin. Allyson Felix. Dalilah Muhammad. Athing Mu.
It’s no real surprise what happened next.
With that star-studded foursome, the U.S. continued its reign of dominance in the women’s 4×400 relay, cruising to gold in a time of 3:16.85.
The U.S. lineup had so much footspeed, across the board, that the rest of the teams of the field could only really fight for silver, with Poland finishing nearly four seconds behind (3:20.53) for second. Jamaica took bronze in 3:21.24.
The victory gave McLaughlin, Felix, Muhammad and Mu two medals apiece at the Tokyo Games – and made Felix the most decorated U.S. track athlete in Olympic history. She had matched Carl Lewis’ 10 medals by winning bronze in the individual 400 on Friday night, but Saturday’s gold made her the only U.S. track athlete to ever win 11.
Mu, meanwhile, won gold in the 800 earlier this week, becoming the first American woman to do so since 1968. McLaughlin and Muhammad finished first and second in the 400-meter hurdles, in one of the fastest races in the event’s history.
With the win, Team USA has now won gold in the women’s 4×400 relay in seven consecutive Summer Games dating back to 1996. It hasn’t gone home with worse than silver since the event was added to the Olympic program in 1972.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Allyson Felix wins record 11th Olympic medal as US takes 4×400 relay