2024 Paris Olympic Games: Live news and coverage from day 8
Australia is leading the USA for gold medals in the pool... just. And it all comes down the final night in the pool. Can the Aussies hold on and rub it in the Yanks’ faces? We look at our medal prospects.
Australia will head into the last day of the Olympic swimming program in Paris clinging to a narrow lead over the United States after falling agonisingly close behind their great American rivals in two epic races on Sunday morning.
Ariarne Titmus gave everything she had in finishing runner-up to Katie Ledecky in the women’s 800m freestyle before Kaylee McKeown, Josh Yong, Matt Temple and Mollie O’Callaghan joined forces to take the bronze medal in the mixed medley relay.
The gold went to the United States - who set just the second world record in swimming at the Paris Olympics - with China taking the silver.
Both the Americans and the Chinese went under the old world record in the funky new event, which was only added to the Olympic program at Tokyo three years ago.
The Americans got their fingertips on the wall first in 3:37.43, with China touching in 3:37.55.
The Aussies finished just 1.33 seconds behind the winners after a brave effort.
“I had a little bit of a disappointment in the 100m free, so I just had to think this is another opportunity to swim for my country and do the best that I can and do the best that I can for these guys standing behind the blocks,” said O’Callaghan, who won gold in the 200m freestyle but missed out on a medal in the 100m.
“This is my first time doing a mixed medley, so it was quite cool and quite an honour so I just had to swim my heart out, swim my own race and just touch the wall for these guys and no matter what, I’m going to give it my all.
“Every moment is special to me and I have got to share it with many people, especially in the relays. It’s such an honour to even get a chance to step on that podium. Last time I didn’t get to.”
Both McKeown and Temple were backing up less than an hour after swimming solo finals, with McKeown capturing bronze in the women’s 200m individual medley and Temple finishing seventh in the 100m butterfly.
With just one day of pool swimming to go in Paris, Australia has seven gold, six silver and three bronze medals for a total of 16.
The Americans have six golds and 25 medals in total.
There are four races to be swum on the final day but the US has more realistic chances for gold than the Aussies so look poised to pip the Dolphins at the post, though O’Callghan said she thinks the Dolphins can hang on.
“Absolutely. I will always back the Dolphins no matter what,” she said.
“I’m Australian, so I have to do that. But no matter what, I think we’ll be very proud.
“It’s a smaller country, a smaller team, to have this much success in such a short amount of time and have everyone stand up and absolutely swim their heart out means everything.
“And at the end of the day, it’s not about the medals, it’s about the team.”
The build up to the Olympics was dominated by a long-stance war of words between the Aussies and Yanks about who was the number one nation in the world after last year’s world titles.
While the Dolphins believed they were the winners because they won more gold medals, the Anericans claimed they were the top dogs because they had the most overall.
Relive all the action from day eight of the Paris Olympics with our blog below
Originally published as 2024 Paris Olympic Games: Live news and coverage from day 8
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