PARIS OLYMPICS, Day 1: Aussie Girls Light Up Paris Pool With A Golden Glow On A Memorable Opening Night For The Dolphins
It was a night like no other that saw Ariarne Titmus and an untouchable Australian women’s 4x100m freestyle squad give the wonders from down under a golden glow with a silver lining on a stunning opener at the Paris La Défense Arena pool.
Titmus, the 23-year-old Tasmanian-born freestyling queen of the Australian Olympic team, started the party, conquering the world and lifting the weight of expectation from her shoulders in a history-making defence.
Becoming the second Australian female swimmer to defend an Olympic title since the great Dawn Fraser won the second of her three 100m freestyle golds in Rome in 1960 after claiming gold in Melbourne in 1956 and adding a third in Tokyo in 1964.
Australia 400 freestyle relay – Shayna Jack, Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon, Meg Harris. Courtesy: DeepBlueMedia
Later in the night Australia’s relay team of Mollie O’Callaghan (52.24), Shayna Jack (52.35), Emma McKeon (52.39) and Meg Harris (51.94) continued the reign of Australia’s 4x100m freestyle dynasty – completing a four-peat in a new Olympic record of 3:28.92 – a domination that started in London in 2012; went down to Rio in 2016; surfaced in Tokyo for 2020 and burst back tom life again spectacular fashion in Paris 2024.
The first Australian Olympic team or relay to win four straight.
And a sixth Olympic gold medal for the retiring McKeon that takes her past the great Ian Thorpe (five) and her 12th medal extends her tally as Australia’s top medal winner overall, also taking her alongside the who’s who of US females Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin with the equal most medals by any female.
With those two gold medals came two silvers to Elijah Winnington in the men’s 400m freestyle and the Kyle Chalmers led Australian men’s 4x100m freestyle, from the first four finals of the meet – a rare opening night.
Winnington (3:42.21) erasing the memory of Tokyo when he finished seventh in the same event and from the same lane – charging home behind Germany’s Lukas Martens (3:41.78) with Korea’s Kim Woomin (3:42.50) out-touching his tough-as-teak fourth-placed Aussie teammateSam Short (3:42.64)
The Aussie 4x100m men were led off by retiring Jack Cartwright (48.03) in his final meet for Australia and were followed by young guns Flynn Southam (48.00) and Kai Taylor (47.73) before Chalmers (46.59) clocked the fastest split of the day as he chased home US anchor Caeleb Dressel to snatch the silver.
A special moment for Taylor, the son of 1992 Olympic silver and bronze medallist Hayley Lewis.
For Titmus, it was a successful and rare golden defence of the coveted 400m freestyle crown in 3:57.48, leading all the way to beat rising Canadian star Summer McIntosh (3:58.37) and the US GOAT Katie Ledecky (4:00.26) in the much-anticipated race of the Games.
Paris 2024 Ariarne Titmus wave after 400 free Photo courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
Titmus later revealing that there were in fact times when the expectation was getting too much.
“It’s one thing to come into an Olympics like last time (in Tokyo) not being an Olympic gold medallist and it’s another thing to come in and (have to) defend your title, Titmus revealed on Channel 9.
“It’s a big monkey on your back and there was a lot of expectation on me and I definitely felt it this week more than ever.
“But I actually felt pretty relaxed today which was nice…I just wanted to come out and have fun; the crowd here is electric; it’s about getting your hand on the wall first – it’s not about swimming as fast as you can….(the time was) a bit off my best but being a back-to-back Olympic champion is pretty cool and it’s nice to have that monkey off my back now.
“It’s pretty crazy for me; I’m just a little kid from Tassie; who grew up on property and who got to the big show in Brissi for my swimming career and I feel very grateful for that.
“My family backed me and believed in me and here I am and I’m still that same person living out my dreams and having fun and hopefully an inspiration, it doesn’t matter where you come from, small town, big town, race, religion. You can do whatever you want as long as you work hard.
“Coming down that last lap, it’s just about holding on; I started to fade a little bit but I just had to hold on and leave everything out there, even if I didn’t end up on the wall first, but I did everything I could regardless…but I’m very happy to come away defending my title
“I’m going to try and enjoy this as much as I can but I still have to remember I have the 200m freestyle in the morning…..and it’s a tough field…I’ll try and calm down and get some sleep and we go again tomorrow….”
Paris 2024 Elijah Winnington silver 400 free Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
And signing off with a message for everyone in Australia: “Thanks everyone at home for all the support. It really means a lot I really feel it…so thank you.”
And then came some encouraging endorsements from the man who knows what it’s like to climb the mountain twice – Ian Thorpe – who also won back-back 400s in Sydney and Athens in 2000 and 2004, likening Titmus as being gladiatorial.
“I can tell you (from experience) defending an Olympic gold is far harder than winning your first one,” said Thorpe, as he provided his own insight during the Australian broadcast.
“This is confidence now; Ariarne looks comfortable around pool deck in this arena; she owns it and it’s like she’s walking out, almost like a gladiator. And Arnie is the terminator so she should be able to walk out like that.”
Before the matriarch of freestyle sprinting Cate Campbell gave some rare insights on Channel 9, into the makings of the relay team she was such an intricate part of in the London, Rio and Tokyo campaigns until she missed this year’s team in an emotional end to her own spectacular career. Saying: “Australia has worked really hard on the culture within the team and wanting to be part of these relay teams, because we see magic moments like this.
“We see that yu can become gold medallists and record breakers and we can be the best in the world, and we have even managed to stay the best in the world
“It’s almost like you see us in our superhero outfits but you don’t see what happens behind the scenes.
“You don’t see the struggle and the heartbreaking and if we just go through this team, you’ve got Mollie O’Callaghan, at her second Olympic Games but at her first Olympic Games she didn’t get a finals swim, so this is the first time she’s swum in an Olympic final.
“You’ve got Shayna Jack who had to fight hard to clear her name from a doping contamination case and still received a two-year ban and had to fight ger way back into the sport and then there’s Emma who is our most decorated Olympian of all time, who could have returned from Tokyo and walked away…..into the sunset with all of the most beautiful memories that she has.
Paris 2024 Australian M 4x100m freestyle Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
“And then you have Meg Harris who is legally deaf, and who has had to overcome the challenges that involves so that just give you a small snapshot of the things those athletes go through.
“So when you see them in their swim cap and goggles and their race suits, you are seeing them in their super hero armor but there are humans behind that…