Black athletes shine as Team USA celebrates early and often on night the U.S. wins 8 Olympic medals

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone set one other world record. Grant Holloway won that elusive Olympic gold medal. Jasmine Moore made American ski jumping history. And Tara Davis-Woodhall got to wear that cowboy hat.

On Thursday at the Stade de France there was a medal frenzy amongst the red, white and blue, who won three gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

The night Noah Lyles revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19 — and still won bronze in the 200 — nearly every other American hopeful celebrated their medals. So much in order that they bumped into one another during victory laps.

Perhaps the best scene got here when McLaughlin-Levrone, wearing a tiara, met Davis-Woodhall, who was wearing a cowboy hat, who had won the long jump competition.

“I was like, ‘You did it.’ And she was like, ‘YOU did it,’” Davis-Woodhall said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I did it.’ … Is this real? Am I dreaming?”

That was a typical theme of the evening. Moore, who finished third in the long jump, was the first American woman to qualify for the same Olympics in each the long jump and triple jump. She is now the first American woman to win bronze in each events.

“I don’t think I imagined it, and it’s so much better than I could have imagined,” Moore said. “It makes you want to work even harder because you know what it’s like (to win a medal).”

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Holloway knows the feeling. He dominated the 110m hurdles, winning three straight world titles. But Olympic gold eluded him — until Thursday. He and Daniel Roberts finished 1-2.

“Today was just my day,” said Holloway, who won silver at the Tokyo Games. “I’ve got an Olympic title, I’ve got world titles, indoor titles. We just added a lot of whipped cream to it and now we’re just going to roll, roll, roll until the last race and put the cherry on top.”

Kenny Bednarek and Lyles opened the medal parade by ending second and third, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Lyles, the 100-meter champion, didn’t appear like his speedy self and revealed after the race that he had tested positive two days ago. He woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a sore throat.

“It definitely affected my performance,” Lyles said. “I’m more proud of myself than anything, coming out here to get bronze with Covid.”

It was one other great performance for McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke the 400m hurdles record for the sixth time. Her silver medallist, Anna Cockrell, finished on the podium.

That evening we needed to sing a song.

“I sang ‘Love On Top’ in the chat room, so shout out to Beyoncé,” Cockrell said. (*8*)