Australia wins women’s 4x200 freestyle relay to claim fifth gold in pool at Paris Olympics
The dream team of Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus has joined forces to crush their rivals and win gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
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Three years later than it probably should have happened, Australia’s wonder women have finally got their redemption — blowing their opposition out of the water to win gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the Paris Olympics.
Of all the races in the French capital that the Dolphins were considered near certainties to win, this was the one, but it was a lot closer than expected until Ariarne Titmus exploded away on the anchor leg.
“It was really fun. I feel like a bit of redemption for us. Tokyo was definitely not the result we wanted,” Titmus said.
“I personally wasn’t happy with how I performed in the relay in Tokyo, so I felt like I put pressure on myself to lift for this team. I feel like I have a role to play in this team and do the best job I possibly can.
“I think I did that tonight. I’m proud that they had faith in me in the back to put me last and get the job done. But very, very special (being) up there on the podium with the girls.”
The golden girls didn’t just beat their rivals, they pulverised them to send an emphatic statement to their major rivals from the United States and China by posting the second fastest time in history and almost lifting the lid off the La Defense Arena.
The dream team combination of Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus joined forces to set a total of 7:38.08, just half a second off the world record which they set at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
When Titmus got to the wall for the final time and looked at the clock, she had to wait almost three seconds before the next team arrived.
TheUnited States took the silver and China the bronze.
The victory kept the Australians in contention to finish the nine-day swimming competition with the most gold medals for the first time since 1956.
With three days to go, the Dolphins have five golds, with the US next on four.
The win was especially sweet for the Aussies after they were surprisingly beaten in Tokyo when the selectors omitted O’Callaghan, who was just 17 at the time, finishing with bronze behind China and the US.
It has since been revealed that two members of the gold medal-winning team were among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive to a banned drug before the Olympics but were acquitted of doping after investigators ruled they ate contaminated food.
A third member of the Chinese relay was stood down for a year in 2022 after eating a burger that contained traces of a banned steroid.
The Aussies made sure of it this time.
O’Callaghan was an automatic choice after winning the individual 200m final, and gave the team a big advantage from the start when she rattled through her opening leg in 1:53.52.
O’Callaghan became the first triple gold medallist in Paris after her earlier wins in the 200m and 4x100m relay.
Added to her two golds from Tokyo, she now has five in total, equalling Ian Thorpe and moving with one of Emma McKeon, who holds the all-time Australian record with six.
“I feel like this time I’ve earned my spot and I’ve really pushed myself to the limits over these past three years,” O’Callaghan said.
“I’ve really strived to the limits, I’m really self critical, I’m really hard on myself each time.
“The standards in Australian swimming is so high, and I just want to be a part of this relay and leave no doubt on.
“To be with the girls in an Olympic final and to win it’s something I can’t explain.”
Pallister claimed her first Olympic medal after swimming the second leg just days after being cleared of Covid, which forced her to skip the 400m and 1500m individual races.
For Pallister and her family, it was a special moment because her mother Janelle Elford swam at the 1988 Seoul Olympics but missed out on a medal after finishing behind two East Germans when the Communists were engaged in state-sponsored doping.
“When I got Covid, I honestly thought I’d be out of that relay completely,” Pallister said.
“I didn’t know if I would even have the opportunity to race the heat, let alone stand on the podium with the girls tonight. So putting my best foot forward, I’m really proud of what I put together.
“I’m probably not 100% happy with the time because I had a flying start, but I think at the Olympics you’re racing for positions and not time. So just to have that experience, to be able to look at my family and friends in the stands and wave and really be a proud Australian, I’m just really stoked for the experience.”
Brianna Throssell collected her second gold medal after being a heat swimmer for the 4x100m freestyle in Tokyo. She swam the third leg, before handing over to Titmus to bring the team home with a blistering anchor leg of 1:52.95.
Titmus now has four career golds after successfully defending the 400m freestyle title in Paris.
Shayna Jack and Jamie Perkins swam the heats only but will also receive gold medals.
ANALYSIS: AUSSIES LEARN LESSON FROM TOKYO HEARTBREAK
By James Magnussen
The Australian women got their redemption in the Paris pool after what was a super disappointing result three years ago in Tokyo.
Importantly the team learnt the lessons from the last Olympics and the relay order was spot on.
Mollie O’Callahan backed up her individual 200m freestyle gold with a dominant lead off performance to give Australia a one second lead over China.
But whereas in Tokyo they ran their second fastest swimmer Emma McKeon next, this time they moved Ariarne Titmus to anchor so we had power to bring it home.
Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell swam great middle legs, they both stuck to their race plan, and by the time it got to Arnie anchoring with the lead in hand, it was always going to be gold for Australia.
The key in a 4x200m relay is getting the order right because it can be hard to maintain your composure with the adrenaline pumping and you’re swimming for your country.
If you have someone going in behind and chasing a lead they often overrate that first 50m and then die off really badly in the back end.
We saw that from a couple of the Chinese swimmers and the Team USA anchor who hit the same problem trying to go out with Arnie and paid for it in the second 100m.
The girls would have been feeling very confident when they saw Arnie dive in with a small lead, nobody was swimming past her.
It was a huge anchor leg from Arnie. She’s obviously a rock solid relay swimmer and she wanted to right some wrongs from the last time where she blamed herself for not getting the team off to the best start at Tokyo.
It’s actually a shame poor Arnie hasn’t been able to add as many relay gold medals to her Olympic tally as some of the other girls because she is a middle distance swimmer and not a sprinter.
So finally winning Olympic relay gold is just reward for her tonight and with a fourth Olympic gold medal she moves a bit closer to being our most successful Olympian.
It’s crazy that Mollie now has five Olympic gold medals and she’s so young, just 20 years of age and she’s racking them up like it’s nobody’s business.
I think she’ll learn a lot of lessons from this Olympics, about how to swim under pressure, how to ride the rollercoaster of an Olympic week and how to deal with the environment.
I still think that Los Angeles 2028 will be Mollie’s greatest Olympics.
We saw the great Michael Phelps take a couple of Olympics to get going and then he was unstoppable.
Mollie’s now got two Olympics under her belt and even though she’s got five gold medals already I really think she’s yet to stamp her authority on world swimming.
I’m really confident that for Mollie the best is yet to come.
Originally published as Australia wins women’s 4x200 freestyle relay to claim fifth gold in pool at Paris Olympics
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