Quincy Hall, left, of the United States, beats Matthew Hudson-Smith, of Britain, to win the men’s 400-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
PARIS (AP) — Quincy Hall became the latest American to electrify Olympic track and field with an out-of-nowhere comeback Wednesday night at the Paris Olympics.
Hall sprinted from far behind in the 400 meters to reel in three runners and capture the gold medal. Hall, buried in fourth place as the runners rounded the last bend, outran the runner on his outside, then two more to the inside to cross the line in 43.40 seconds, the fourth-fastest time ever.
Hall then dropped to the track to do snow angels to celebrate.
Matthew Hudson-Smith of Britain finished second and Muzala Samukonga of Zambia finished third.
Hall is the first American since LaShawn Merritt in 2008 to capture gold in the one-lap race. His victory came an evening after teammate Cole Hocker came from far behind late to beat the favorites in the men’s 1,500.
The win came about an hour after Noah Lyles advanced to the final of the 200 meters despite finishing second to Letsile Tebogo in his semifinal heat. Lyles will race for the gold medal Thursday.
Highlights of what happened on Day 12 of the Paris Olympics:
¯ U.S. takes silver and almost pulls upset in steeplechase
Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco defended his title in the men’s steeplechase with a .36-second win over American rival Kenneth Rooks.
Rooks had the lead heading into the homestretch and was looking to pull off a massive upset, but El Bakkali overtook him. Rooks still beat his personal best by almost 9 seconds to capture the second silver in three Olympics in the event for the United States.
Australia reaches new heights with pole vault win
Nina Kennedy’s gold medal in the pole vault was Australia’s 18th at the Paris Games, an Olympic record for the country.
Kennedy cleared 4.95 meters to beat defending champion Katie Moon of the U.S.
¯ Lin Yu-ting advances to gold-medal bout
Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s featherweight division. She won her third consecutive bout while dealing with widespread scrutiny regarding misconceptions about her gender.
One day after welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria reached her weight division’s final with a third straight victory in Paris, Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5:0.
Lin will fight for gold on Saturday.
Lin and Khelif have dominated all of their Olympic bouts despite the massive distractions created by the fallout from the Olympic-banished International Boxing Association’s decision last year to disqualify both fighters from the world championships for allegedly failing an eligibility test.
Both fighters have responded to this unwelcome spotlight by making two of the best tournament runs of their lengthy amateur careers.
¯ U.S. women’s basketball keeps winning
A’ja Wilson scored 20 points and Jackie Young added 15 to help the United States beat Nigeria 88-74 in the women’s basketball quarterfinals. The victory extended the Americans’ record Olympic winning streak to 59.
Breanna Stewart also had 13 points for the Americans, who haven’t lost since the 1992 Barcelona Games and are now two victories away from an unprecedented eighth consecutive gold medal. They will face a familiar foe in Australia in the semifinals on Friday night.
The loss ended a historic run by Nigeria, which became the first African country to reach the Olympic basketball quarterfinals.
¯ Americans win gold in women’s team pursuit
The American women’s pursuit team had twice before raced for the Olympic gold medal, and it had been on the podium all three times the cycling event had been on the program for the Summer Games.
Successful, but never on top.
The U.S. changed that at the Olympic velodrome when road race champion Kristen Faulkner, time trial bronze medalist Chloe Dygert, Jennifer Valente and Lilly Williams finally took that last step up.
They soared to a big early lead on New Zealand in their head-to-head showdown, then held on through a ragged finish to finally win the gold medal.
The Americans led by more than a second a quarter of the way through the 4,000-meter race, and they stretched the gap at one point to nearly two seconds. When they began to come apart from their single-file, aerodynamic draft with about two laps to go, they had to fight to the finish to hold off Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields.
In the final of the men’s pursuit, Sam Welsford, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien of Australia beat Britain in a close final at the Velodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines to win gold for the first time in two decades.
¯ U.S. weight off his shoulders
Hampton Morris became the first U.S. men’s weightlifter to earn an Olympic medal in four decades, taking bronze in the 61-kilogram division. It had not happened since Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, notably boycotted by several communist countries.
The 20-year-old Morris, trained by his dad in the garage at their home in Marietta, Georgia, finished third in a competition won again by Li Fabin of China. Li defended his title from the Tokyo Games in 2021 and set an Olympic snatch record.
¯ U.S. figure skaters finally get their medal
A touch of winter came to the Summer Games when the United States figure skating team finally got their gold medals as 2022 Olympic champions.
The special medal ceremony allowed the nine Americans to receive the medals exactly 2½ years after the figure skating team event ended at the Beijing Olympics. A doping saga from the winning Russian team led to the Americans being declared the winner.
All nine American skaters came to Paris: Karen Chen, Evan Bates, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou. Seven of the eight members of the Japan team came to get their silver medals — an upgrade from their third-place result in Beijing.
A Russian appeal trying to win back the Olympic team title was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport just before the Paris Games opened. The title had been stripped in January when a different CAS panel disqualified Russian teenager Kamila Valieva for doping with a banned heart medication.
She also was banned for four years.
China dominates artistic swimming
China took gold in the artistic swimming team event, dominating in the absence of Russia, which had won every gold medal in artistic beginning with the 2000 Sydney Games.
It was a big medal for China, and also a step forward for the sport, which changed its name from synchronized swimming several years ago to update its image. Some swimmers still call it “synchro.”
China finished with 996.1389 points, ahead of the United States and Spain. It was the first U.S. medal in the sport since 2004.
Men had an opportunity for the first time to compete in artistic swimming at the Olympics, but no men were picked by any of the teams. There is consideration to add a mixed duet team event for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which would create more space for men to compete.