At the end of a night where British track and field athletes banished the bad memories of Tokyo, Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive blasted out across the Stade de France. It was a fitting encore.
It wasn’t only that Team GB won three medals in 67 minutes on a Fairly Fabulous Friday. It was the resolve, defiance and pure joy on the faces of those who had overcome significant odds in the process.
Deep in the bowels of the stadium, Katarina Johnson-Thompson was talking about how she felt like quitting in 2016 and 2021, due to mental and physical issues only to finally win an Olympic heptathlon medal – a silver – at the fourth attempt.
Then there was Zharnel Hughes, his hamstring heavily taped up, beaming proudly as he spoke of running through the pain barrier – as well as the speed barrier – as Britain’s men’s 4x100 relay team claimed a bronze.
Meanwhile Daryll Neita beamed in excitement as she spoke about how much a silver 4x100m relay medal meant to her, especially after coming fourth and fifth in the women’s 100m and 200m earlier in the week.
True, it wasn’t quite Super Saturday, where Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford won three golds in 46 minutes at London 2012. And nor was it quite the sequel, where the same three athletes won gold, silver and bronze on the same night in Rio.
But perhaps this result, along with others in the week, indicate that after a few years in the doldrums the sport is slowly heading in the right direction, especially after UK Athletics only won five medals in Tokyo.
On a night of cascading emotions, it will be Johnson-Thompson’s silver medal that will live long in the memory of British viewers. Many wrote her off in 2016 when she went to Rio as the favourite only to leave in a bad place mentally – only for her to win a world title in 2019.
They did so again when she suffered a career-threatening achilles injury at the end of 2020, and her right calf blew up in Tokyo eight months later. At that point even her greatest supporters wondered if a place on the Olympic podium might elude her.
Yet over two days of high drama she went toe-to-toe with the Belgian Nafi Thiam, the greatest heptathlete of this age and perhaps any other.
In the end it came down to an 800m that Johnson-Thompson needed to win by just over eight seconds. She did her part, running a personal best of 2:04.90. But close enough to her was Thiam, who ran a PB of her own in 2:10.62 to win her third Olympic heptathlon title.
She is the only person to do that. And given she is only 29, a fourth gold medal in Los Angeles might not be beyond her. In the end Thiam took gold with 6,880 points, with Johnson-Thompson taking silver in 6,844, her second-best ever tally. Another Belgian, Noor Vidts, won bronze with 6,707.
“I am so happy,” Johnson-Thompson said. “No complaints at all. I am grateful and emotional and overwhelmed. I have no regrets. I am so happy to come away with an Olympic medal.
“To be on the podium is such an honour. Olympic cycles can be brutal. I know that more than anyone. In 2016, it was all mental, it was mental exhaustion. In 2021 it was physical. I feel after both Olympics I could have given up for different reasons.”
Meanwhile the bronze medal for British men’s 4x100m team was an especially poignant moment given that three of the squad – Richard Kilty, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Hughes – were stripped of a silver medal after the Tokyo Games after their teammate CJ Ujah tested positive for banned substances in a supplement.
“I’m still in pain,” said Hughes. “My hamstring is heavily, heavily strapped but this is the Olympics finals of the 4x100 and the guys needed me, and I was going to go there to give it my very best. And I’m so happy that we are able to be on the podium.”
Hughes, who had to miss the men’s 200m, added: “We did an ultrasound and an MRI, and we found out that the sciatic nerve was being pushed. And there was also some bleeding on the muscle, so I needed to take a couple of days to let the tone of the hamstring calm down.”
Kilty, who was watching the final in the stands after running in the heats, said: “My heart was beating and I was just thinking ‘please, please, please’. It was absolutely amazing.”
The British team were also helped by another bungled changeover by the United States Christian Coleman ran a great leg, but Kenny Bednarek left his mark far too early. Incredibly it is 24 years since the US men’s 4x100m relay team have won a medal at the Olympics.
Meanwhile Britain’s 4x100m women had to survive an appeal after a poor baton change from Amy Hunt to Neita allowed the US star Sha’Carri Richardson to take gold in 41.78sec. However, after a long wait it was decided it had been handed over in the box in time.
And there was nearly another British medal on the night as Amber Anning broke Christine Ohuruogu’s national 400m record by running 49.29sec. However, she finished 0.31sec out of the medals in a race won in an Olympic record of 48.17 by Dominica’s Marileidy Paulino.
