In Tokyo, men and women are teaming up in a series of mixed-gender events that are making their Olympic debuts.
After winning bronze in one of the new Olympic events at the Tokyo Games, Alejandra Valencia of Mexico recalled the moment when her partner nearly blew it. “I just said, ‘It’s OK, you know how to do this!’” she recalled. “And I gave him a little punch.” Valencia’s partner, Luis Alvarez, had misfired with his first arrow of the second set in mixed team archery. But buoyed in part by Valencia’s pep talk, Alvarez refocused as the Mexicans defeated a two-person team from Turkey and made the medal podium — together. In Tokyo, more men and women than ever before are teaming up to compete in a series of mixed-gender events that are making their Olympic debuts: relays in track and swimming, mixed pistol and rifle competitions on the shooting range, mixed judo and mixed table tennis. The most high-profile moments yet for the mixed events occurred on Saturday, with the 4×100-meter medley relay final in swimming and the 4×400-meter relay in track and field. When the 4×400 mixed relay was added to the Olympic program in 2018, it looked like a sure medal — perhaps even a gold — for the United States, which had lost the men’s version of the Olympic relay only twice since 1984. The U.S. women have won their event every year since 1996. That record translated into confidence heading into the finals, even if Allyson Felix, the most decorated female track athlete the country has produced — and one of the top quarter-milers in the world — opted not to race in the event. If she had, it might have yielded Felix a world-leading 10th Olympic medal. But if the inaugural version of the race proved anything, it was that this event might end up being one of the more unpredictable of the Games. An enormous crash took out Germany and nearly eliminated Jamaica.
