Paris Olympics, Day 9 Finals: American Women Blast World Record in 400 Medley Relay to Finish Meet With Gold
The United States women’s team has largely impressed in Paris, winning medals in 11 out of 14 individual events and missing the podium by one hundredth in two others. Torri Huske (100 butterfly) and Kate Douglass (200 breaststroke) won individual gold medals while Regan Smith claimed silver in three individual races. Only Australian might in freestyle and backstroke and the presence of Canadian teenage star Summer McIntosh prevented an even-higher output of gold.
Australia was unbeatable in the freestyle relays earlier this week, but the Dolphins did not have the balance across the 100-meter events to match up with the U.S. in the women’s 400 medley relay. Consider the first three swimmers in American lineup: 100 backstroke world-record holder Smith, 100 breaststroke world-record holder Lilly King and 100 butterfly world-record holder Gretchen Walsh.
Walsh was actually not the top-performing American in the 100 fly this week, with Torri Huske edging her out for gold, but Huske was needed on the freestyle leg in this event after blasting a time of 52.29, the fastest time by an American in five years, to win silver in the individual event this week. And with those four elite legs, the world record set by an American team five years that included Smith and King was definitely under fire.
Indeed, the team led wire-to-wire, creating an insurmountable, three-second advantage on King’s breaststroke leg. The foursome smashed the global standard by three-quarters of a second, with Huske powering to the wall in 1:49.63.
- World Record: United States (Smith, King, Dahlia, Manuel) – 3:50.40 (2019)
- Olympic Record: Australia (McKeown, Hodges, McKeon, Campbell) – 3:51.60 (2021)
- Tokyo Olympic Champion: Australia (McKeown, Hodges, McKeon, Campbell) – 3:51.60
Regan Smith — Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
On the opening leg, Smith faced Kaylee McKeown, the swimmer who beat her out for individual gold in the 100 back. This time, though. Smith got the better of the Aussie, completing her 100 meters in 57.28 to break the Olympic record McKeown set on the way to gold five days earlier. The time ranks No. 2 in history, behind the 57.13 Smith clocked at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month.
King dove in for what she professes to be her final Olympic swim and came through with a 1:04.90 split, the quickest in the field and a whopping 2.41 seconds clear of Australia’s Jenna Strauch. Walsh fired off a 55.03 split, tying the fastest-ever for the 100 fly, allowing Huske to cruise home in 52.42 to secure gold and the first-ever performance under three minutes, 50 seconds.
“I was thinking what was that record before we broke it,” King said, harkening back to her presence on record-breaking squads in both 2017 and 2019. “We brought the record down a lot. It’s really cool to continue be a part of that relay and watch it get faster and faster and faster with pretty much the same people. It was an awesome way to cap off the meet.”
Australia’s team of McKeown, Strauch, Emma McKeon and Mollie O’Callaghan took silver in 3:53.11, with O’Callaghan anchoring in 51.83 to move the Aussies from fourth to second place. China’s Wen Letian, Tang Qianting, Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan secured bronze in 3:53.23, leaving a valiant Canadian team in fourth place (3:53.91).
The gold medal was the Americans’ eighth in the pool at the Olympics, the team’s lowest total since 1988, but a late surge of four golds in the final two days of competition allowed them to overtake and pass Australia, been stuck at seven since the conclusion of Friday night’s finals.
Smith and King both said they did not know the team’s medal count prior to the relay, but Walsh admitted, “I knew that Bobby (Finke) had tied the gold medal count,” referring to the American distance ace’s world-record-setting swim in the 1500 free. “Bobby’s swim was electric. It got my energy going,” Walsh said.
Following the race, Smith stood on the top step of the podium for the first time in her career. Her first six Olympic medals, three in Tokyo and three individual races in Paris, included five silvers and one bronze. She claimed her first gold medal by virtue of her prelims leg on the mixed 400 medley relay, and this win brought a second gold, this time with Smith playing a much more central role.
“It feels amazing,” Smith said in an NBC Sports post-race interview. “These three have done incredible. They’ve had such great careers and been amazing at these Games. They’ve all heard the anthem on the podium, and I haven’t yet, so I’m so excited to up there with them this time.”
Huske finished as the highest-performing American this week, winning 100 butterfly gold and 100 freestyle silver while also claiming three relay medals (two gold and one silver). “This week was absolutely amazing, and there’s no better way to end a week,” Huske said in her NBC interview. “These girls had such a big lead. It kind of took the pressure off me. I would have had to mess up real bad. I’m just so thankful for Team USA and for these ladies next to me.”
Walsh claimed her second relay gold medal and fourth overall medal of the week, which included an individual silver in the 100 fly behind Huske and a 50 free finals appearance where she missed the top-three by one hundredth. Among the American foursome, King was the only swimmer who had yet to win a medal this week, finishing fourth in the 100 breast by one hundredth and eighth in the 200 breast, and she blasted by far her best swim of the meet.
Australia’s team featured the swimmer who edged out Smith for Olympic gold in the 100 and 200 back, McKeown, leading off the squad while 200 free gold medalist O’Callaghan would anchor. McKeon, one of the greatest relay swimmers ever, was expected to vastly out-perform her individual times on the butterfly leg. But breaststroke would doom the Australians, with Strauch having finished 22nd in the 100 breast in 1:07.27. Strauch tried to stick with King in the first half of her swim but faded badly down the stretch.
Notably, the silver medal marked the 14th podium finish of McKeon’s career. In her final Olympic swim, she moved into a tie with Katie Ledecky for the most medals career medals among female swimmers.
China also had a dynamite group, with individual medalists in Tang and Zhang while Yang was coming off a 51.96 split anchoring the country’s mixed 400 medley relay Saturday, but backstroke would put the Chinese team more than two seconds behind the Americans and Australians, a deficit the last three swimmers could not overcome.
Canada brought in McIntosh for her 13th swim of the week, and after winning three individual gold medals and a silver, she dove in with Canada holding down second place following Maggie Mac Neil’s 55.79 butterfly split, but McIntosh could only manage a 53.29 split as O’Callaghan and Yang sprinted ahead.
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Way to go USA women, amazing WR! Best finish the US could have had to this meet! And great way to beat out Australia in gold medal count(4 in last 2 days compared to none from the Aussies!) Looks like the Star Spangled Banner was heard atop the podium more than the own anthem of those who bashed it, how fitting!
Thank you Swimming World for bringing us such great coverage of the swims in Paris. You respect the athletes, coaches and the sport. Always a pleasure to read your analysis of the events, without tabloid commentary.