Australia’s women 4x100m freestyle relay team take out gold at Paris 2024 Olympics

It’s officially a decade of dominance. For the fourth time in a row, Australia has won gold in the women’s 4x100m relay, with a rookie opening her account and a great adding to her collection.

Australia’s gold medal winning 4x100m women’s relay team; Emma McKeon, Meg Harris, Shayna Jack and Mollie O'Callaghan (L-R) Picture: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP

It’s the new Awesome Foursome. The greatest Australian Olympic team in history.

In what has become an opening night staple for the mighty Dolphins, the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team completed a record fourth straight Olympic gold medal.

When the Aussies put all their guns together in the pool, no one can stop them.

This relay team has been undefeated since the London 2012 Olympic Games when it was the Weapons of Mass Destruction team that were hyped for gold, instead the women exploded onto the scene with nuclear force and have been unstoppable ever since.

This quartet of women has regenerated consistently over the past decade with young stars emerging and old heads passing the baton that there are now 14 young women in Australia who can call themselves part of this illustrious four-time Olympic champion team.

In 2024 it was young world champion Mollie O’Callaghan who led the way, out in 52.24s to give the green and gold a lead they never surrendered.

“This is what I have been dreaming of to be a part of this team,” O’Callaghan said.

Rookie Shayna Jack came next, splitting 52.35s in a front-loaded team to avenge the bitterness of missing the 2021 Tokyo Olympics for a doping ban she maintains she was innocent.

She was too devastated to watch this race in Tokyo, instead heading off for a day at Australia Zoo with her boyfriend, but now she is an Olympic gold medallist.

“It was mixed emotions. It was joy for them, but it was also envy that I couldn’t be there,” Jack said.

“It was tears of joy for them, because actually they won and also broke the world record that I was in.

“It was one of those moments that gave me that fight to come back. It actually drove that passion to come back and be part of this team. And I’m really honoured to be part of this team with these girls.”

Redemption for Shayna Jack (facing). Picture: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Emma McKeon secured her third straight gold medal in the relay, and 12th Olympic medal overall to move clear of Ian Thorpe as Australia’s greatest Olympian of all-time, with a 52.39s split.

“I think I was 17 when I missed London, you couldn’t have told me that I was going to go on to do this,” she said.

“But I think it’s just that persisting. And, you know, you have ups and you have downs, and you just keep going along, and you keep ticking the boxes and doing everything that you can, and that’s what I’ve done over the years. And, yeah, I can’t believe where I’m at right now.”

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Then it was Meg Harris who delivered the hammer blow. A rookie member in Tokyo, she was the anchor leg start coming home in 51.94s to a thunderous noise from the crowd.

“I’ve never anchored before, but I had so much fun,” Harris said,

The final was not a race, it was an encore.

The victory opens the account for young O’Callaghan who is aiming to become Australia’s most successful athlete of these Games, with up to four golds and potentially six medals on her radar over the nine day competition.

O’Callaghan was a heat relay swimmer in Tokyo, but now she is the star of the show.

Up next for O’Callaghan is the showdown of the Games – the 200m freestyle against training partner Ariarne Titmus.

Both women are floating on air after opening night gold medals. The tone has been set.