Paris Olympics, Day 9 Finals: American Women Blast World Record in 400 Medley Relay to Finish Meet With Gold

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 Tokyo, 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 Regan 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

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.

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, which has been stuck at seven since the conclusion of Friday night’s finals.

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.

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, and 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 McIntosh sprinted past.