BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- American youth athletes found success in an innovative competition format at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Track and field athletes competed in two stages over the course of five days with the results being added together to determine the medalists.
Taking home the sole gold medal for Team USATF was Grace Stark (White Lake, Michigan) who dominated the women’s 100m hurdle competition clocking the fastest times in both stages. In stage one, she cleared the hurdles finishing with a time of 13.31 and returned to the track three days later to win stage two in 12.83. Her combined time of 26.14 put her atop the podium by 26 hundredths of a second.
Stark was selected to carry the flag to lead all of Team USA into the closing ceremonies.
Triple threat Athing Mu (Trenton, New Jersey) won the AAU Junior Olympics in the 400m, 800m and 1500m this summer, competed in the 800m at the Games. She finished third in her heat in stage one with a time of 2:08.01. Then with a furious kick in stage two, Mu caught the lead pack to finish second, improving on her stage one time by nearly three seconds to 2:05.23. After waiting for the combined results for more than half an hour, Mu saw that her kick was enough to secure the silver medal.
In the men’s 400m, Nicholas Ramey (Snellville, Georgia), a member of Team USATF who competed at the U20 World Championships in Tampere, Finland, brought home bronze after running the third-fastest time of 47.60 in stage one and 47.27 in stage two.
Utah State High School champion in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m, Meghan Hunter (Provo, Utah) finished second in the fourth heat of stage one with a time of 56.83 and clocked 56.08 for another second place finish in her heat in stage two. Hunter placed ninth overall out of 25 competitors.
Skylar Ciccolini (Lewiston, Pennsylvania), the 2018 USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Champion in the javelin, threw 49.90m/163-8 for eighth place in stage one. In stage two, Ciccolini unloaded a new personal best of 55.07m/180-8. Her combined distance of 104.97m was good for seventh place overall.
Charles McBride (Raleigh, North Carolina), the USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Champion in the high jump, finished eighth overall with a stage one clearance of 2.05m/6-8.75 and stage two leap of 2.03m/6-8.
In the men’s long jump, Malcolm Clemons (San Francisco, California) leapt 7.46m/24-5.75 in stage one but did not compete in stage two.
The third summer edition of the Youth Olympic Games featured 4,000 athletes from 206 nations and was the first Olympic event to have an equal number of male and female participants.
Fans can watch the closing ceremony on the Olympic Channel live at 6:20 pm ET.