RIO DE JANEIRO – They needed a do-over to reach Friday's final of the women's 4x100-meter relay, but the U.S. made it count with a gold-medal finish in Rio.
The team ran the race with a time of 41.01. Jamaica won the silver and Great Britain won the bronze.
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The American women, considered medal favorites in the event, initially did not advance to the final from Thursday's qualifying when Allyson Felix dropped the baton after being bumped by a Brazilian runner who crossed into her lane.
Felix eventually picked up the baton and passed it to teammate English Gardner as the team finished the heat in last place. However, a successful protest landed them a second chance.
Running by themselves in their own qualifying heat on Thursday night, the U.S. posted the fastest overall time at 41.77 seconds to earn a spot in the finals while Brazil was disqualified.
Felix also was a member of the U.S. team that won gold in the event at the 2012 Olympic Games, one of three golds she won in London.
HOW THEY MADE IT HERE
The U.S. team made the most of its second chance to qualify for the women's 4x100-meter relay final, recording the fastest time of the day in a solo re-run before the night session began.
The Americans dropped the baton during the morning preliminaries and appeared to be out of contention.
But track officials upheld the U.S. protest because Allyson Felix was jostled as she tried to hand the baton over to English Gardner.
[WATCH: After second chance, USA cruise to 4x100m relay finals]
Because relay finals must be limited to eight teams, the Americans were called back to run all by themselves, in the same order and in the same lane.
Their goal was to beat the time of 42.70 seconds run by China. They posted a time of 41.77, almost a second faster than the target and narrowly in front of Jamaica, the fastest of the automatic qualifiers in 41.79.
Their time marked the second-fastest 4x100 in the world this season. The fastest time this year was Germany's 41.62 in July.