Defending Champs Team USA Earn Silver in Women's 4x100m Relay at Tokyo Olympics
After two back-to-back golds in the Olympic women's 4x100m relay, Team USA earned a silver on Friday night in Tokyo with the four-person team of Teahna Daniels, Javianne Oliver, Jenna Prandini and Gabby Thomas.
In the qualifying round, they came in second in the relay with a time of 41.90 seconds, just behind Great Britain, who finished in 41.55.
The U.S. team repeated that second-place performance in the final as they trailed Jamaica, who had won silver in the previous Olympic match-up; Great Britain won third.
Though the U.S. put up a season's best time, Jamaica earned a national record and was never less than several steps ahead.
Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
Instead of Thomas and Prandini, English Gardner and Aleia Hobbs ran on the relay team during the heats, helping the U.S. qualify for the final and so — even though they didn't race again — also earned silver with Friday's finish.
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(Thomas won bronze in the women's 200m earlier this week and Prandini's best friend, Kendra Harrison, who lives next door to her in Texas, won her own silver in the women's 100m hurdles.)
"We were excited to come out here and work hard together to come out with a medal," Thomas told reporters after the race. "We're really excited to do this for Team USA."
When asked about why they think the women's relay succeeded in Tokyo in comparison to the U.S. men's relay team, Daniels told reporters: "Challenges can be overcome. But for us, I feel like we are so young and we come from great college programs."
Gardner's success in the heat came in the wake of a serious bout of COVID-19 earlier this year.
She has said the infection left her suffering from muscle cramps, leg pain, headaches, full-body rashes and respiratory issues and that she was sidelined for around a month
On Thursday, she said she was competing at "less than half" of her normal capabilities during the trials as she was "just coming out" of being sick.
"It's nothing short of a miracle that I'm here," she told reporters.
Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images
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"My heart has gotten much better," Gardner said Thursday. "Since the U.S. trails I got an EKG, everything's cool, so we're all good."
She thanked the support of her "girls" and said that aside from the "dry and thick" air — with temperatures in Tokyo in the mid-90s — her ongoing COVID issues had "not been affecting too much of my runs."
"We're just gonna get out there," she said.
To learn more about Team USA, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
