2024 Paris, Euro Recap: Out Of The Spotlight, Josha Salchow Is Having The Meet Of His Life

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
  • Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Full Swimming Schedule
• SwimSwam Preview Index
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• How To Watch
• Live Results
• European Recap, Day 1: Lukas Märtens Doesn’t “Give A Shit” About 400 Free WR As He Wins Gold
• European Recap, Day 2: Leon Marchand Answers The Hype With An Olympic Record
• European Recap, Day 3: European Men Have Won Every Individual Event Through Three Days
• European Recap, Day 4: Team GB’s 4×200 Free Relay The First To Defend Olympic Gold With Identical Lineup

Lukas Märtens got Germany off to a hot start on day one of the 2024 Olympics by dominating the men’s 400 freestyle and winning gold. We’ve seen Germany start strong at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships. But at both those meets, they had trouble sustaining that momentum. 

Not this time, though. They may have only picked up one more medal since day 1, which came today via Isabel Gose‘s bronze medal performance and national record in the women’s 1500 freestyle. But what determines a successful meet for Germany goes beyond podium placements. And sprinter Josha Salchow is flying under the radar as he helped push Germany’s momentum forward.

In his Olympic debut, the 25-year-old has made an Olympic final and helped Germany to two relay finals. Salchow trains with Craig Stewart in Adelaide, Australia. There were signs of an impending breakout from him as early as November 2023, when he swam 48.39 in the 100 freestyle at the Japan Open and became the 5th fastest in German history. At the Berlin Open in April, Salchow became simply the fastest German in history, breaking Rafael Miroslaw‘s German record of 47.92 with a 47.85. He’d swum a lifetime best of 48.23 in prelims; before that, his lifetime best was 48.63 from April 2023. 

He broke 48 seconds for the second time in his career during the semifinals. He posted a 47.94, which moved him through to his first individual Olympic final in 8th place ahead of some much bigger names in the event like Matt Richards, Josh Liendo, and Alessandro Miressi. 

Salchow made the most of his opportunity. In lane eight, Salchow swam to a sixth-place finish in 47.80, taking another .05 seconds off his German record. It’s Germany’s best finish in the event since Jörg Woithe won gold in 1980 when the country was still divided into East and West. For a unified Germany, it’s the best performance since Hans-Joachim Klein won bronze in 1964.

Salchow has also been a part of historic performances for the German relays at these Games. On the first night of competition, he helped the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay qualify for the final with a national record of 3:13.15, which he, Miroslaw, Luca Armbruster, and Peter Varjasi lowered to 3:12.29 for 7th place. This was the first time since 2012 that Germany made the final in this relay; they haven’t been higher than 11th in the world rankings for the last nine years. The time also moves them up from 19th to 13th on the all-time performers by nation list. 

But the German men’s relays weren’t done. The 4×200 freestyle relay was seeded 8th, on the cusp of a third-straight finals berth. They exploded in prelims, qualifying 5th in 7:06.20. Märtens and Miroslaw, the country’s go-to 200 freestylers, did their job on the first two legs, splitting 1:45.66 and 1:46.35.

Coming into the meet, on paper it looked like Germany was going to need a big split from either Salchow or Timo Sorgius to make the final. Salchow delivered, throwing down a 1:46.18 relay split, which gets even more impressive when you realize that his lifetime best flat start is a 1:47.73 from the Berlin Open. 

There’s been a lot of talk about how this is a slow pool due to its depth. Many events at these Games have seen slower times to medal or win than we’ve become used to. It took until tonight to get our first world record, though there have been plenty of Olympic records. But like all blanket statements, the slow pool allegations don’t apply to everyone; some, like Salchow, haven’t seemed too affected. In fact, Salchow is having one of the best meets of his life, quietly helping medallists Märtens and Gose propel Germany to one of their best international outings in years. 

Day 5 Quick Hits

• The biggest European story of the day was Leon Marchand completing the dirty double and winning gold in the 200 butterfly/200 breaststroke, both in Olympic record time. In the 200 fly, Marchand staged a late comeback to get ahead of Kristof Milak, touching in 1:51.21 to become the second-fastest in history. He was back up a little over an hour later in the 200 breaststroke, which he commanded from the start. He touched in 2:05.85, setting Olympic and European records. That swim solidified him as the first swimmer to win two golds in the same session since Kornelia Ender in 1976.
• Sarah Sjostrom was the other European highlight of the session, winning gold in the women’s 100 freestyle. Sjostrom wasn’t originally planning to swim the event; leading up to the Games she said she was only concentrating on the 50 free. She was a late entry and was noncommittal about it after the entries dropped. Even after the relay on day one, she said that she was not going to swim but her coach said “‘No way, you need to go out there and see what you can do, no matter the outcome.'” And it turns out her coach was right as she tore to her first Olympic gold in the event despite being the reigning world record holder.
• With Pan’s win in the men’s 100 freestyle, the European men’s individual medal streak has officially been snapped. However, Sweden, Hungary, and the Netherlands all got put themselves on the medal table for the first time today. Along with Sjostrom’s gold, Milak won silver for Hungary in the 200 fly, and Caspar Corbeau earned bronze in the 200 breast for his first Olympic medal.

More Day 5 Continental and National Records

• Anastasia Kirpichnikova and Isabel Gose set national records en route to their silver and bronze medals in the women’s 1500 freestyle. Kirpichnikova, who defected from Russia, crushed her French record from last summer by more than eight seconds to become the 2nd fastest European in this event (15:40.35). Gose followed up her 5th place and German record in the 400 free by breaking Sarah Wellbrock (neé Köhler)’s German record in 15:41.16. Wellbrock posted that time en route to the German women’s first Olympic medal since 2008, now Gose has started a streak for them in both the Olympics and this event.
• Helena Rosendahl Bach lowered her Danish and Nordic records in the women’s 200 fly. She punched her ticket to the final in 2:06.65, shaving .28 seconds off the records she swam at the Stockholm Open in April of this year. Bach earned silver at the 2024 World Championships and is through to the Olympic final in 6th place.
• There were multiple national records set in the men’s 200 fly final. Noe Ponti swam a Swiss record of 1:54.14 in the men’s 200 butterfly semifinals. He equaled that mark again in the final, taking 5th place. It’s a strong swim for Ponti, taking .08 seconds off his national record from 2022. Martin Espernberger took 6th, just behind Ponti in an Austrian record of 1:54.17. That performance took down an Austrian record that had stood since the 2012 Games when Dinko Jukic swam 1:54.35.

European Medal Table Thru Day 5