Gabby Thomas won her second Olympic gold medal of the Paris Games on Friday. The sprinter from Northampton, Massachusetts, was part of the winning U.S. team in the 4X100-meter relay. Earlier this week, she won gold in the individual 200-meter race.
The relay — on a rainy night in Saint-Denis — gave Sha'Carri Richardson her first Olympic gold after she brought the Americans from behind in the anchor lap.
Richardson, the 100-meter silver medalist, overcame runners from Britain and Germany, to help the U.S. finish in 41.78 seconds, good for a .07-second win over Britain, which struggled with two baton changes in the rain.
Thomas ran the third leg, with Twanisha Terry and 100-meter bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson rounding out the team. The exchange between Terry and Thomas that nearly wrecked the Americans in a qualifying round was better this time.
Still, when Thomas handed off to Richardson, the U.S. was in third.
Richardson had to reel in Daryll Neita (Britain) and Rebekka Haase (Germany), and when she did, she flashed a look to her right — and backward — that said ″you’re not catching me.”
Richardson sprinted eight more steps down the track, and on her ninth, lifted her left leg high and stomped it on the other side of the finish line, then let out a scream.
It marked a sweet close to the Olympics for Richardson, who came into the Games as a favorite in the 100-meter sprint but fell to Julien Alfred of St. Lucia.
Thomas, who attended Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, now has four career Olympic medals. In addition to her two golds in 2024, she won a silver in this same relay in Tokyo in 2021, as well as a bronze in that year's 200-meter race.
This report contains material from the Associated Press and the NEPM newsroom.