NANTERRE, France—The final night of swimming at the Paris Olympic stirred a wide range of emotions for an American team that no longer rules the world.
A world record from Bobby Finke.
Elation.
A historic loss that reignited gripes about Chinese doping.
Stunning.
Finally, another world record for the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team to edge out rival Australia for the top spot in the gold-medal table.
Whew!
“Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,” said Lilly King of the winning relay team, who joined her teammates in strolling around the deck holding up the stars and stripes as the crowd filed out La Defense Arena.
Finke set his new standard in the 1,500 freestyle before the American women closed a thrilling nine days of swimming in style.
The United States finished with eight gold medals to edge out rival Australia, which won seven events. Still, it was the lowest victory total for the Americans since the 1988 Seoul Games, when they were beaten by a doping-tainted East German program.
They finished with 28 medals overall, two shy of their total three years ago in Tokyo. In all, 13 nations won at least one gold—French star Léon Marchand was essentially a country unto himself—and 19 teams made the medal podium.
After a bevy of disappointing performances by some of its biggest names, the U.S. team was very much aware of its gold-medal battle with the Aussies.
“I knew Bobby had tied it up,” King said. “Bobby’s swim was electric. That was amazing. He definitely got my energy going for the relay. I was pumped to hopefully assert that lead and get the gold.”
That’s just what she did.
King, whose third Olympics will be her last, made up for a disappointing showing in her individual events by powering to the lead on the breaststroke segment.
Then it was Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, two of the biggest U.S. stars at these games, bringing it home in 3 minutes, 49.63 seconds to break the record of 3:50.40 set by the United States at the 2019 world championships.
Regan Smith led off in the backstroke leg, earning a relay gold for the second night in a row after starting her Olympic career with five silvers and a bronze.
Australia, the defending Olympic champion, took the silver this time in 3:53.11. The bronze went to China in 3:53.23.
Four world records were set during the meet, three of them by the U.S.
Historic Loss for Americans
China stunningly won the gold in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, ending the American run of dominance that stretched back to the introduction of the event at the 1960 Rome Games.
The only time the United States didn’t win gold was in 1980, when it boycotted the Moscow Games.
The winning team included Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, who were both among the nearly two dozen swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games but were allowed to compete. The result stirred more hard feelings from other nations that feel the Chinese might have gotten away with cheating.
Pan Zhanle of the Chinese team, who had previously set a world record while winning the 100 free, powered away from American Hunter Armstrong on the anchor leg to touch in 3:27.46.
The Americans were left with the silver in 3:28.01, with France taking bronze in 3:28.38 to give Marchand his fifth medal of the games—four of them individual golds.
British star Adam Peaty, whose team barely missed out on a medal by finishing fourth, blasted a system that allowed the Chinese swimmers to compete at the Olympics.
“If you touch and you know you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right?” Peaty said. “As an honorable person, I mean, you should be out of the sport, but we know sport isn’t that simple.”
Peaty noted that after the initial revelations, additional reports surfaced of more positive tests in the Chinese program that went unpunished.
“I think we’ve got our faith in the system, but we also don’t,” he said. “Whoever’s in the race, I expect in my head that it has to be fair for them to be there. We did our best job as a team to do that, and it may have been [worthy of] a bronze. Who knows?”
Caeleb Dressel, who swam the butterfly leg for the Americans, said prior to the Olympics that he didn’t have faith in the World Anti-Doping Agency or his sport’s governing body, World Aquatics.
With a silver around his neck, he seemed resigned to the belief that nothing will change.
“I don’t work for WADA,” Dressel said. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Finke’s World Record
Finke was under record pace the entire race and really turned it on coming to the finish. He touched in 14:30.67 to break the record of 14.31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang at the 2012 London Games.
The silver went to Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in 14.34.55, while race favorite Daniel Wiffen of Ireland couldn’t follow up his triumph in the 800 freestyle. He was never a factor and settled for the bronze in 14:39.63, barely holding off Hungary’s David Betlehem for the final spot on the podium.
Finke became only the fourth swimmer to defend the men’s title in the longest event at the pool, and the first since Australia’s Grant Hackett in 2004.
“I really wanted to get on top of the podium again and I hear the anthem all over again like I did for the first time in Tokyo,” said Finke, who swept the 800 and 1,500 three years ago.
This time, a gold in the 1,500 to go with a silver in the 800 felt pretty good, too.
“It was a dream,” he said.
Swedish Gold in Women’s 50 Free
Sarah Sjöström of Sweden claimed her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics, furiously dashing from one end of the pool to the other to easily claim the 50 freestyle title.
The 30-year-old Sjöström, competing in her fifth Summer Games, had already won the 100 free—an event in which she holds the world record but only decided to swim at the urging of her coach.
She was more surprised than anyone with that victory, which had her overflowing with confidence heading into the 50 free.
Sjöström touched in 23.71, just shy of the world record of 23.61 she set at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan. In a race that’s usually decided by a hundredths of a second, the Swedish star turned this into a relative blowout. She was fastest off the block and clearly in control by the midway point of the single lap, where the swimmers don’t even bother coming up for air.
Meg Harris of Australia took the silver in 23.97, while the bronze went to China’s Zhang Yufei in 24.20. For Zhang, another of the swimmers implicated in a Chinese doping scandal, it was her fourth bronze of the games to go with a silver.
Walsh, in her first swim of a busy night, just missed out on a medal in 24.21.
By Paul Newberry