At the Paris 2024 Olympics on Saturday, Cyrena Samba-Mayela won the first track and field medal for France, although she had to settle for silver after falling short of Masai Russell.
At the Stade de France, Team USA’s Russell, who is competing in her debut Games, came flying up the inside to defeat Samba-Mayela by a tenth of a second.
President Emmanuel Macron watched as Samba-Mayela broke down in tears on the track after winning France’s first medal in athletics on the penultimate night of their home games.
Russell’s win, which marks Team USA’s 12th track and field gold at these Games, followed Grant Holloway’s victory in the men’s 110-meter hurdles on Thursday.
In a hotly contested race, Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn claimed third place, just three-hundredths of a second behind Russell, while Nadine Visser of the Netherlands finished in fourth place without earning a medal.
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