An Australian team spearheaded by Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus won the women’s Olympic gold for the second-fastest time ever.
Led off by O’Callaghan and brought home by Titmus, with Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell in the middle legs, they touched in an Olympic-record seven minutes 38.08 seconds at the La Defense Arena on Thursday.
The Katie Ledecky-led United States (7:40.86) took silver, and defending champions China (7:42.34) the bronze.
Ledecky became the most decorated female Olympic swimmer of all time. She now has 13 Olympic medals, one more than compatriots Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin and Australia’s Emma McKeon.
#Silver for the USA! 🇺🇸
A strong showing to grab second place in swimming women’s 4x200m freestyle relay. 🏊
The USA has medalled in this event at every Olympic Games since it first took place in 1996, making it 8 medals in a row!
Katie Ledecky also breaks the medal record to… pic.twitter.com/HDWZ0KB4v1
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 1, 2024
Australia avenged their failure to win gold in Tokyo when China set a new world record to stun both them and the Americans.
Australia reclaimed the world record at the 2023 world championships and were heavy favourites in Paris with their time in Paris second only to their own world best.
They got a flying start from O’Callaghan, who clocked 1:53.52 to give them the lead, but it was Titmus who sealed the deal, coming home in a sizzling 1:52.95 to leave USA and China in her wake.
Gold for the 4x200m freestyle relay women 🥇
Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus dominated the field in 7:38.08 setting a new Olympic Record! #AllezAUS | @swimmingaus | @dolphinsaus pic.twitter.com/TgKB8fTCNO
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 1, 2024
Earlier in the pool, Kate Douglass underlined her remarkable versatility with gold in the women’s 200 metres breaststroke, beating Tokyo champion Tatjana Smith who bowed out of swimming with a silver medal in her final race.
Taking full advantage of her turning prowess, American Douglass nudged ahead of Smith after every length and held off the South African to touch the wall in 2:19.24 at La Defense Arena.
World champion Tes Schouten won bronze for the Netherlands, her first Olympic medal.
Douglass’s victory was her first Olympic gold and second of the meet following her silver medal in the women’s 4×100 metres freestyle.
A master of all strokes, she also took the 200m individual medley bronze at Tokyo and is a major contender for gold in the same event in Paris.
“I’m really excited. I feel like for a while I wasn’t sure if Olympic champion was going to be possible for me to say, and now it’s just really exciting to see it happen,” the 22-year-old told reporters.
Having won the 100m breaststroke gold on day three, Smith was bidding to match compatriot Penny Heyns who took both the 100 and 200m golds at the 1996 Atlanta Games and remains the only women’s swimmer to do so.
She had to settle for silver but it gave her a total haul of four Olympic medals – two golds and two silvers – surpassing Chad le Clos (one gold, three silvers) as South Africa’s most decorated Olympic Games swimmer.
“It was an amazing race and to end it off with a silver but with a fight was the best way to end it,” the 27-year-old told reporters.
“I don’t know if I’m going to even look at the pool for the next 10 years.
“It’s so hard as a swimmer to actually swim for fun. I don’t know why. If there’s like a pool party or something, no one wants to swim.”
Meanwhile, Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh claimed her second gold medal as she fended off a strong field in the women’s 200-metre butterfly final.
The 17-year-old touched the wall in an Olympic record time of two minutes 3.03 seconds, 0.81 seconds ahead of American silver medallist Regan Smith.
China’s Zhang Yufei took the bronze.
It was McIntosh’s third medal of the Paris Games, having taken a dominant 400 metres individual medley gold on day three of the meet and silver in the 400m freestyle on day one.
The butterfly win also made McIntosh the first Canadian swimmer ever to claim multiple Olympic golds.
In the men’s 200-metre backstroke final, Hubert Kos took Hungary’s first swimming gold of the Paris Games.
The 2023 world champion came from behind to touch out in one minute 54.26 seconds, 0.56 ahead of Greek silver medallist Apostolos Christou, at the La Defense Arena.
Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov the bronze.
Christou led for the first 150 metres, with Kos then slotting into second at the 150 mark before moving up a gear to power past.
Kos has been working with Michael Phelps’s former coach, Bob Bowman, who is also training France’s triple gold winner Leon Marchand.
“I just kept swimming and swimming, and you know, I was just happy to get my hand on the wall first,” said the Hungarian.