Gray’s Creek Grad Hayes Wins Gold With American Women’s 4×400 Relay Team
It’s a golden day for Hope Mills native Quanera Hayes, as she has won a Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics with the United States’ 4×400 women’s relay team.
The United States set an American record in the finals, destroying the field with the second fastest time in 4×400 women’s history.
Hayes – a 2010 Gray’s Creek High School graduate – did not run in the finals, but having run in the qualifying heat, she still receives a medal. It was the eighth straight time American women have won the 4×400 at the Olympics.
Hayes ran the leadoff spot of the United States women’s 4×400 relay team’s opening round heat, that Team USA ended up finishing in first.
In the finals on Saturday, Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabrielle Thomas and Alexis Holmes took charge, easily beating the Netherlands by over 4 seconds. Great Britain was edged out for the Silver, but took home the Bronze.
Little was the only returning American runner from the qualifier, with Hayes, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown completing the team of American medalists.
Hayes notably had previously made the US Olympic Team for the rescheduled 2021 Tokyo Games, after a stunning upset in the women’s 400m final at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2001. She is a 2010 Gray’s Creek graduate, and Hope Mills native.
Hayes finished seventh in the 400 in 2021, so this will be her first shot at an Olympic medal. If she does win it, she’ll be the second athlete from our region to win one in Paris. Sammy Sullivan, a Jack Britt graduate and Army Captain, won Bronze with the United States women’s rugby team.
