Stop the Olympics. It’s over. We had our greatest race of the competition and one of the greatest races of all time. American Rai Benjamin ran the 400m hurdles in 46.17 seconds, beating the previous world record by more than half a second. And Benjamin came in second. Norway’s Karsten Warholm ran “a mind-boggling time of 45.94 seconds, obliterating his month-old record (46.70).” How fast is that? Consider this. Warholm ran the 400m hurdles faster than 18 of the 48 competitors who ran the 400m WITHOUT HURDLES. (This is the one and only time that all-caps are appropriate.) You can watch the race here.

+ NYT (gift article for ND readers): A Track Built for Speed Is Already Producing Records. (It’s springy, but it would have to be a trampoline to explain that 400 hurdle time.)

+ Wired: Why Even the Fastest Human Can’t Outrun Your House Cat. (Yeah, but cats run under the hurdles. That’s cheating.)

+ Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, Simone Biles is back in action. Biles took Bronze in the balance beam. “It means more than all of the golds because I pushed through so much the last five years and the last week while I’ve even been here.” Biles said the twisties are still there. “Every time I watch the guys and the girls out there, I want to puke every time I watch them do a double-double [a move involving twists] because I cannot fathom how they’re doing it.” (After learning about the twisties, I realize I have them for just about all physical activities.)

+ OK, let’s not stop the Olympics. You never know what can happen. For example, who predicted a Badminton player would swap rackets mid-rally and still win the point?