James Magnussen: Where Paris Olympics 100m freestyle final went wrong for Mollie O’Callaghan
The hot favourite to win gold in the 100m freestyle final, Mollie O’Callaghan’s medal hopes went up in dust after one crucial mistake, writes JAMES MAGNUSSEN.
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The biggest stage of an Olympic 100m freestyle final is the pinnacle of pressure and Mollie O’Callaghan has felt that pressure more than anyone in Paris.
Her first 25m went exactly as planned. But where the rest of the field put a gap in her was that second 25m into the turn, specifically that last 5m between the flags and the wall.
It looked like she really decelerated into that turn and she then didn’t get the same momentum off that turn that she usually does coming up half a body length behind the leaders.
She went out in 25.51, in equal last place. The leaders are around 25.06, half a second is just too much time to give away in an Olympic final.
In an Olympic race that’s just never going to be good enough to win a gold medal.
She’s used to being thereabouts with that split at a national level, but in a 100m international final with the extra wash it makes it a lot harder to make up that distance.
She fought really well towards the end and still had the fastest final 50m in the entire field, but even with her background in 200m freestyle she just gave Sarah Sjostrom too big of a lead to reel her in.
Mollie will look at that swim and think 52.34 is a respectable time at an Olympic final. It is not her best time, but Mollie would know herself that she’s got to find another level to that race if she wants to win Olympic gold.
She is still young enough to come back in Los Angeles in four years and achieve that goal.
You cannot forget that she has had a really big week so far – she’s already had six races before this final and that’s another part of having a big program in the Olympic Games.
When you’re competing in an imperfect environment and dealing with the pressure, the expectation, the emotional high of coming up and winning gold medals and then trying to get back down to settle yourself each night at an Olympic Games is super draining and Mollie will have learned a lot from this week.
She’s got one individual gold medal in the bank so I’m sure she’s not too disappointed, but she would have been confident for this event and the Australian team would have been banking on a gold in that 100m freestyle to boost the Dolphins’ medal tally.
Shayna Jack has had a really commendable race so she should be really happy with that.
She’s now got the experience of an individual final at the Olympic Games, you can’t underestimate the importance of that experience as she moves onto her next task.
She’ll be all the better for that with the 50m freestyle later this week where you would have to think she is a real chance at standing on the podium. She’ll certainly be feeling a lot more confident about that after reaching this final.
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