The US team on the way to a mixed 4x400m world record at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
Little more than an hour into the first stadium evening session of athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the first track and field world record* was broken by USA in the mixed 4x400m relay.
The quartet of Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown clocked 3:07.41 to smash the previous mark - set when the USA won the world title in Budapest last year - by more than a second.
“We talked about it was going to take a record to get a medal, but it took a record to win our prelim,” Little said.
Norwood ran 44.47 seconds to put the US team into an early lead, then Little extended it on the second leg by running 49.32, the fastest lap of any woman in the preliminary round. Deadmon opened up a significant gap on the chasing pack with a 44.17-second third leg before Brown anchored them to a clear victory in 49.45 seconds.
Brown crossed the line more than three seconds ahead of France, who set a national record of 3:10.60. Belgium was third in 3:10.74, also a national record.
Six countries in all established national records in the heats, in addition to the USA world record.
Norwood said his lead-off job was to create enough space to avoid any potential issues with the handoff, but Little had to adjust where she took the handoff when she realised, as Norwood was approaching her, that she was not standing in the correct position. Little opened a lead that Deadmon expanded on the third leg.
“I think we did an extreme job of getting out in front with clean exchanges because you know how tricky it can get,” Norwood said.
Deadmon ran in the heats at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games for the US team that eventually earned a bronze medal, but called the raucous, loud atmosphere inside Stade de France entirely different, adding the volume from the filled stadium took him by surprise.
“We knew what it would take to break the world record,” Norwood said. “Our job is just to come out and execute. Hopefully tomorrow we do it again.”
Andrew Greif for World Athletics
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure
