Charlotte-area runner helps US to silver in 4x400 mixed relay a day after world-record run

Charlotte-area native Kaylyn Brown has won her first Olympic medal, one day after making history with the Team USA 4x400m mixed relay team.

“I feel amazing — just excited to be here,” Brown, of Ranlo, said Saturday. “Very blessed to be here and just get around the track, helping my team.”

Helping her team may be an understatement. Friday night, Brown helped set a world record during qualifying. Saturday, she and her mates fell short of the top spot, but still snagged a share of the podium — and silver medals.

Just a few months removed from her freshman campaign at the University of Arkansas, where she was the 2024 NCAA 4x400m relay champion and collegiate record holder, Brown is representing the United States in Paris.

Brown began running with the Sugar Creek Jaguars in Charlotte at only 4 years old. But she isn’t afraid of the pressure of big competitions. In fact, she thrives on it.

She won the 2022 World U20 Championships 4x400m mixed relay gold, and took silver in the 400m at NCAAs (her time of 49.13 set a world record for 19-year-olds, shattering the previous mark of 49.42 set by Germany’s Grit Breuer in 1991). Brown finished fourth in the 400m at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials and was one of six athletes selected as part of Team USA’s relay pool.

She has run the 400 in under 50 seconds seven times during the 2024 outdoor season, and her 49.13 run earlier this year was the second-fastest time at 400 meters this year.

Friday, Brown and her teammates — Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little and Bryce Deadmon — shattered the world and Olympic records with a 3:07.41.

Even though they finished second Saturday in an equally impressive 3:07.74, with Brown running a 49.14 anchor, they came into it making sure they had fun.

“I told the team this is the moment we’ve all been working for,” Norwood said before they took the track for the final. “Just enjoy it — the feeling that we’ve been feeling, the nerves and everything, embrace it because we all feel the same thing. Just go out there and have fun.”

Brown added, “He also told us the stadium is bigger, but we’re bigger.”

Anna Laible is a student with UNC Media Hub, a program with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reporting from the Summer Olympics in Paris. Laible hosts the Speak Up Sports Podcast. Follow her journey covering her first Olympics on her Instagram (@anna_laible).