RIO DE JANEIRO—Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt are savvy track stars who’ve been around long enough to know that not everything always goes to plan.
Over the final 30 minutes of Saturday’s topsy-turvy night at the Olympic track, both Americans came away with prizes they'd been wishing for all along.
Those prizes were both golds from the 4x400 relay teams, and the United States exited the final night of action at Olympic Stadium with 31 medals — the most it has taken in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1956, when both the world and track were very different places.
“People are at home watching — watching 2012, watching 2008,” said Felix, 30, who wrapped up her fourth Olympics and now has nine total medals. “And when they get their opportunity, they’re seizing the moment.”
One of those moments looked like it might belong to 41-year-old Bernard Lagat in the 5,000 meters. He actually finished sixth, but three runners ahead of him, including American Paul Chelimo, were disqualified for interference and Lagat briefly moved to third. “Really?” he exclaimed when told about it during post-race interviews.
A review ensued, Chelimo was reinstated to his original silver medal and Lagat was dropped to fifth — a bummer for the elder statesman of the U.S. track team, but some sort of sign for the team: Even when it lost, it won.
“I thought it was a joke,” Chelimo said of the moment when he was told his silver was gone. “I couldn’t believe. Now I’m really happy. I got reinstated. It’s the best feeling ever.”
All those reviews and appeals made for a strange scene as the program came to a close. Mo Farah, Chelimo and Hagos Gebrhiwet marched to the podium to receive their medals nearly an hour after the evening’s final race, in front of only a few thousand stragglers in the stands. It was Farah’s second straight 5,000-10,000 Olympic double, putting an exclamation point on the games for his home country, Britain.
The medal ceremony was wacky. But the night’s biggest surprise came from Matthew Centrowitz, who shocked the field in a slow 1,500-meter final and became the first American to win gold in the “metric mile” since 1908. His time was 3 minutes, 50 seconds.
“Doing my victory lap, I literally kept screaming to everyone I know, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Centrowitz said.
