Female Breakout Swimmer of the Year: Veteran Paige Madden Found Something Special to Land on Olympic Podium
If you were watching the Paris Olympics and couldn’t quite believe what you were witnessing Paige Madden do, that’s OK. She really didn’t fully grasp it either.
The work was certainly there, the soul-searching of priorities and inventive event selection after her Olympic debut in Tokyo, and the rare step of heading overseas to train at Loughborough University.
But for a long-course 200/400 freestyle specialist to go from a best time in the 800 free of 8:27 in 2023 to 8:13 at the Olympics at the age of 25 … so much of that is unbelievable.
“If you told me that a year ago, I would have said you’re crazy,” Madden said, bronze medal around her neck in Paris. “But maybe a month ago, it was sort of in the back of my mind, just based off of my training, but it still feels so surreal. It’s been three years, especially this last year. I think it just hasn’t shown until tonight.”
Those contrasts define Madden’s breakout 2024. She wasn’t new to the international stage but performed there like never before. Her emergence wasn’t unforeseen given her pedigree, but it still astounded in the best possible way.
Fitting Madden into the American female landscape as the calendar flipped to 2024 was a challenge. She had won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 800 free relay while finishing seventh in the 400 free. The former event is a locus of massive turnover in an Olympic cycle, a slew of promising young talents pushing hard for spots. The 400 free and just about any other event a distance specialist could choose was inherently partitioned into one spot for Katie Ledecky and one spot for not Katie Ledecky.
To expand her narrow path to Paris, Madden ventured out of her comfort zone. After a sterling career at the University of Virginia, it took her to the United Kingdom before relocating to Arizona State then Texas. It also took her toward the 800 free, boldness that paid off in Indianapolis.
Madden qualified for Paris by finishing third at Olympic Trials in the 200 free, then second in both the 400 free and 800 free, with best times in all. She’d shown her promise in the 800 by winning gold at the Pan Am Games the previous fall, though the time of 8:27.99 was a far cry from she’d summon the next summer.
In Paris, Madden secured a silver medal in the 800 free relay and finaled in the 400 free, finishing sixth against a stacked field where Ledecky only eked out bronze. It meant she was playing with house money when the 800 free arrived.
About that 800: Madden went 8:39.27 at Olympic Trials in 2021. She improved to 8:32.46 by 2023, then a best time of 8:27.64 in January at the TYR Pro Swim Series. What came next was a quantum leap – 8:20.71 in Indy to finish second to Ledecky, then 8:18.48 to make the Olympic final in Paris and 8:13.00 to take home bronze and become the fourth-fastest performer all-time.
“I mean, I never thought I was going to go faster than what I did in Tokyo,” Madden said once her Paris program was done. Her joy at being wrong shone brighter than the bronze glinting on her lanyard.
Paige Madden – #1 in the heart of this UVA fan! She set the UVA Dynasty in motion. (Of course, there are dozens of #1As.)