They’re used to fighting over gold. Together, they blew the world away

For 16 years, Australia have tried and failed to win a women’s 4x200m freestyle gold. Since the last, at Beijing 2008, the medals have been silver, silver and bronze respectively.

But when your heat time was almost seven seconds faster than the rest of the field, and you are subbing in the individual 200m freestyle gold and silver medallists just for the final, the odds appear to be heavily in your favour.

Australia’s gold medal-winning women’s 4x200m relay team.Credit: Getty Images

And so it came to pass on Friday morning AEST, when Mollie O’Callaghan led off the blocks and Ariarne Titmus anchored the quartet with style to secure Australia’s fifth gold medal in the pool.

Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell held the momentum to build the platform for an Olympic-record time of 7:38.08. It was the second-fastest of all time in this event, and followed a head-turning heat from Pallister, Throssell, Jamie Perkins and Shayna Jack earlier in the day. Five of the six train under coach Dean Boxall.

The result rights the disappointment of a missed opportunity in Tokyo three years ago, and builds on the world record the team set at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and then again at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka.

That world record of 7:37.50 did not fall at La Défense Arena, and there was, in the end, very little between the Dolphins and the second-placed United States and third-placed China, who pushed the Australians the entire way home.

But Titmus first cancelled the small gains Katie Ledecky had made in the third leg, and then broke free in the final 100m to claim gold by 2.78 seconds - the biggest winning margin in Olympic history.

Mollie leads from the front

Three years ago, a 17-year-old O’Callaghan returned home from the Tokyo Games with a bronze medal in this event. The catch? She only swam in the heat. Despite producing an impressive lead leg of 1:55.11, national team coaches stuck with their original plan to swap out all four of the heat swimmers (O’Callaghan, Meg Harris, Throssell and Tamsin Cook) for four fresh faces in Titmus, Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson and Leah Neale. The decision caused controversy.

Mollie O’Callaghan gets Australia off to a flying start.Credit: Getty Images

“When you take home the medal in the heats, it doesn’t feel like yours,” O’Callaghan said. “I feel like this time I’ve earned my spot, and I’ve really pushed myself to the limits over these past three years … so to this time be with the girls in an Olympic final and win, it’s something I can’t explain. It’s just a feeling like no other.”

After the medal ceremony, the final quartet embraced the team’s heat swimmers Perkins and Jack, who were watching from the stands, and O’Callaghan draped her own gold medal around Perkins’ neck. “I love those girls,” she said. “They train alongside me … and they’ve dedicated a lot of their time and effort to get here, and I am really excited to share this medal with all of them.”

Lani rises off her sick bed - and to the challenge

Pallister clinched her first Olympic medal only a couple of days after a COVID-19 diagnosis forced her to skip her 1,500m individual race.

Lani Pallister defied her recent bout of COVID to keep Australia out in front.Credit: Getty Images

“When Dean [Boxall] told me [she’d be racing] this morning, I bawled my eyes out,” she said. “When I got COVID, I honestly thought I’d be out of that relay completely. 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 I’m really proud of what I put together. I’m probably not 100 per cent happy with the time considering I had a flying start, but at the Olympics you’re racing for positions and not time. So just really stoked to have that experience of being able to look at my family and friends in the stands.”

The medal was also significant for Pallister’s family. Her mother Janelle contested the 1988 Olympics, but never managed to beat her East German rivals to a medal during the country’s state-sponsored doping regime.

Brianna leaves two greats in her wake

Throssell only found out she would be racing the third leg against American Ledecky and Canada’s Summer McIntosh while on the bus en route to the pool. “Literally about two hours before we raced,” she said. “When the start sheets came out and I saw I had Summer and Katie I was pretty nervous, but I just knew that I had to swim my race and just do the best that I can. And if they started to mow me down, I just tried to hold on for dear life.

“I was breathing to Katie on that final 50, and I was just trying to hold her off knowing that Arnie’s on the blocks waiting for me.”

Standing on the podium is also new territory for Throssell, who claimed three relay medals in Tokyo - including one gold - as a heat swimmer. “I’ve been on the senior team 12 years now,” she said. “I made my first senior team in 2012, so being my third Olympics and standing on the podium for the first time in my final Olympic race is an honour, and I wouldn’t want to sort of finish my Olympic career any other way.”

Arnie completes her redemption arc

This event has weighed heavily on Titmus since the Tokyo final, when the then 20-year-old was shaded by China’s Yang Junxuan in the opening leg and Australia never recovered. They broke their own world record with 7:41.29, but still finished third behind China and a Ledecky-anchored US. Titmus’ split was 1:54.51 - 1.01 seconds slower than her individual 200m gold medal-winning time.

Ariarne Titmus leads the celebration after victory was completed.Credit: Getty Images

This time, in Paris, Titmus swam the last leg. And this time she clocked the fastest split by far (1:52.95).

“It’s a bit of redemption for us,” she said. “Tokyo was definitely not the result we wanted, and 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 … and do the best job I possibly can, and I think I did that tonight.

“Tokyo was a big learning curve for me after winning the [200m and 400m] double gold - you don’t realise how much emotional toll it takes on you. I had to let my emotions out a little bit this week, tried to get it out of my system and then reset for the relay.”

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