In an 8-woman race, gold, silver and bronze medals are to be given to the first, second, and third place finishers.

assuming no ties, in how many ways can these medals be awarded?

a.
9 ways

b.
24 ways

c.
336 ways

d.
40,320 ways

Let me restate that problem more simply. In an 8-woman race, gold = first, silver = second, bronze = third.

So, 8 people. 3 prizes. To get the outcome, we multiply both "events" : basically the amount of people and the amount of prizes.

Hope this helps!