U.S. Women's 4x100-Meter Relay Team Win Gold

Tianna Madison, 200-meter champion Allyson Felix and Bianca Knight gave the U.S. a big lead heading into the anchor leg by Jeter, who already owned a silver medal from the 100 and a bronze from the 200 in London.

Their final time cut more than a half-second off the old record of 41.37 run by East Germany in 1985.

Jamaica won the silver medal Friday in a national record of 41.41 seconds, with 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sherone Simpson, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart bringing the baton around.

The bronze went to the Ukraine in 42.04.

With Knight approaching for the final handoff, Jeter took nine strides, reached her hand back and took a perfect exchange. Jeter was staring at the clock as she covered the final 10 meters and used the stick in her left hand to make sure everyone else also had their eyes trained on the bright orange numbers on the trackside clock.

Afterward, the quartet of champions paused to watch a replay of their record performance on the scoreboard at 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. When Jeter was shown crossing the finish line, Knight punched the air.

The perfect trip around the track ended a string of disappointments for the U.S. in the event. At Beijing four years ago, the Americans didn't even reach the final because Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams bobbled the last exchange in the semifinals.

That marked the first time since 1948 that the U.S. wasn't involved in the women's 4x100 medal race at the Summer Games.

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Carmelita Jeter and Allyson Felix have been battling head-to-head throughout the 2012 Olympics, but on Friday the two best American runners were able to put their substantial talents together in leading the United States to a gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter relay race in world record time, finishing in 40.82 seconds. The team blew past the previous record of 41.35, set by East Germany in 1985.

Jeter has the overall medal lead on Felix at these Games, winning a silver in the 100-meter dash and bronze in the 200 meters. She added a third to that collection thanks to Team USA's impressive run today.

What Felix has lacked in overall success—which is a relative term since she now has two medals—she has made up for in wins. Unlike Jeter, she already had a gold medal to wrap around her neck thanks to a victory in the 200-meter race on Wednesday.

Team USA entered the race as one of the favorites to medal, especially after posting the fastest time in qualifying at 41.64 seconds. That was nearly seven-tenths of a second better than Trinidad and Tobago in the first heat.

Granted, there are a lot of teams that will pull up late as long as they know they qualified for the finals, but that is still an impressive margin of victory under any circumstances.

This is sweet redemption for the Americans. Four years ago, Team USA didn't even make it to the finals of this event after being disqualified in the first round.

All it took was four years, and a new collection of talent, but the United States was able to find itself with a medal in the 4x100-meter relay once again.

1 United States 40.82
2 Jamaica 41.41
3 Ukraine 42.04
4 Nigeria 42.64
5 Germany 42.67
6 Netherlands 42.70
7 Brazil 42.91
8 Trinidad and Tobago DNF