Allyson Felix, of United States smiles after taking the bronze, in the final of women's 400-meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Aug. 6, 2021, in Tokyo.Francisco Seco/The Associated Press
Allyson Felix finished third in the 400 metres Friday to win her 10th career medal and become the most-decorated woman in the history of Olympic track.
The 35-year-old Felix, a stalwart of American track and field, started in the outside lane and outraced Stephanie Ann McPherson of Jamaica to take third place by .15 seconds.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo blew away the field, winning in 48.36 seconds to defend her Olympic title from Rio de Janeiro.
Felix’s 10th Olympic medal broke a tie with Jamaican runner Merlene Ottey, and matches Carl Lewis, who also won 10 medals and was alone as the most decorated U.S. athlete in track.
The victory for Felix comes nearly three years after she helped spearhead a conversation about the way women are treated in track, and sports in general. She severed ties with Nike, which wrote in pay reductions to women’s contracts if they became pregnant. Felix had a daughter in 2018.
Felix won the race wearing a shoe she designed for a company she created.
This is the first bronze medal of an Olympic career that spans back to the 2004 Athens Games. Earlier, she had won six gold and three silver. She could go for No. 11 if the U.S. puts her in the 4x400 relay final, which is set for Saturday night.
Gold medallists April Ross of the United States and Alix Klineman of the United States pose with their medals on Aug. 6, 2021.JOHN SIBLEY/Reuters
AMERICAN WOMEN
The U.S. beach volleyball team of April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold in beach volleyball and the American women’s basketball and volleyball teams won to advance to the gold medal finals in both sports. Ross and Klineman swept Australia 21-15, 21-16 in 43 minutes. For Ross, the gold completes a set. She won silver in London in 2012 and bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Klineman won gold in her first Olympics. The U.S. women’s volleyball team avenged a gold-medal match loss to Serbia in 2016 with a 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 victory that sends them back into the final against Brazil. The U.S. women’s basketball team will play Japan in Sunday’s final after rolling over Serbia 79-59 behind 15 points and 12 rebounds from Brittney Griner. Japan beat France 87-71. If the Americans win Sunday, they would match the seven consecutive Olympic titles won by the U.S. men from 1936-68.
Team Italy celebrates after winning the men's 4x100-meter relay final at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Aug. 6, 2021, in Tokyo.Petr David Josek/The Associated Press
BLISTERING ITALIANS
Scorching Italian men and dominant Jamaican women continued their country’s golden storylines at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday as two Belarusian coaches exited in disgrace. A scorching Italian 4x100 metres relay team pipped Britain over the finish line, delivering Lamont Marcell Jacobs his second gold and the country’s 10th at Tokyo. Italy’s decision to exempt elite athletes from strict COVID-19 curbs in the past 18 months and allow them to train has paid off.
ATHLETICS WRAP
The Jamaican women underlined their sprinting dominance with a gold in the 4x100 metres relay. Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon retained her Olympic title in the women’s 1,500 metres at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, breaking the Olympic record as she denied Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan her dream of winning an unprecedented Olympic treble. Men’s 5,000 metres world record-holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda added gold in that event to last week’s 10,000-metre silver, while Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas snatched the women’s 400 metres gold.
BELARUS DEPARTURES
Two Belarus coaches who cut short sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya’s Tokyo Olympics are out of the Games themselves. In an exclusive interview with Reuters in Warsaw on Thursday, Tsimanouskaya said the two officials had told her the order to send her home came from “high up” in Belarus.
DECORATED WOMEN
Laura Kenny became the most decorated female Olympic cyclist in history with a fifth gold, destroying the field in the first women’s madison event at a Games. American Allyson Felix’s bronze in the 400 metres made her the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history, edging ahead of Jamaica’s Ottey.
KEIRAN AT HOME
The bizarre cycling race that perplexes many sports spectators in the world is no stranger to local fans at the Tokyo Games. In Japan, keirin racing, which developed after the Second World War, is a US$10-billion gambling industry, one of five sports which is legal to bet on - the others being motorbike racing, horse racing, powerboats and football.
- The Associated Press, Reuters