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
- Pick ’em Contest
- How To Watch
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Oceania Recap, Day 1: Chalmers On ‘King Kyle’ Form After Tough Run Up to Paris
After a quiet second day in the pool for Oceania, Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus gave the Australian contingent of the continent something to cheer about on day three. The pair went 1-2 in the women’s 200 freestyle, with O’Callaghan getting revenge for the Australian Trials, where Titmus beat her and broke her world record. This time, it was O’Callaghan breaking one of Titmus’ records; the 20-year-old swam 1:53.27 to win her first individual Olympic gold medal, breaking the Olympic record Titmus swam in Tokyo (1:53.50).
In just three years, O’Callaghan has graduated from a prelims-relay-only swimmer to the Olympic champion and one of the two faces of this event on the international scene. She arrived in Tokyo for her first Olympic Games at 17 years old. She helped Australia to three relay medals in Tokyo (2 gold, 1 bronze) with her prelims swims. Leading off the women’s 4×200 freestyle prelims relay, she swam a then-world junior record of 1:55.11 but was left off the relay for finals, which she’s cited as motivation for her since.
O’Callaghan won silver at the 2022 World Championships, but last summer in Fukuoka, she truly broke out. There, she took down Federica Pellegrini‘s 14-year-old world record with a 1:52.85. She was the second swimmer to break the 1:53 barrier, but she wasn’t done yet. By winning the 100 freestyle later in the meet, O’Callaghan became the first woman to win the 100/200 freestyle double at a World Championships. And she still hadn’t reached her 20th birthday.
O’Callaghan bettered her world-record time at the 2024 Australian Olympic Trials with a 1:52.48. But Titmus beat her with a scorching 1:52.23 to take over the world record. O’Callaghan was visibly disappointed afterward, but now six weeks removed from that swim, she refocused and wrote her name into the Olympic history books. She flipped at the 100 in 6th place (56.07) but pulled herself up to third at the final turn with a 28.80 third 50.
What made the difference for her tonight was her closing 50 meters. She seemed to be testing a different race strategy at the Australian Trials but returned to her strengths in Paris. Hardly anyone has a better back-half than O’Callaghan and she proved it tonight with a blistering 27.98 closing split. It’s the fastest closing 50 from any of the top ten performances, propelling her to the third-fastest swim of her career.
The two Australian women have completely taken over this event. O’Callaghan’s gold-medal swim pushes Allison Schmitt out of the top ten performances in this event, meaning that Pellegrini–who presented the Olympic medals today–is the only swimmer not named O’Callaghan or Titmus still in the top ten.
All-Time Performances, Women’s 200 Freestyle (LCM)
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:52.23 — 2024 Australian Olympic Trials
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 1:52.48 — 2024 Australian Olympic Trials
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 1:52.85 — 2023 World Championships
- Federica Pellegrini (ITA), 1:52.98 – 2009 World Championships
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:53.01 — 2023 World Championships
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:53.09 – 2021 Australian Olympic Trials
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 1:53.27 — 2024 Olympic Games
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:53.31 – 2022 Australian Championships
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS), 1:53.50 – 2021 Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020)
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 1:53.57 — 2024 Australian Open Championships
The pair have swum six of the top ten performances in the last year. Titmus owns the most swims on this list, but O’Callaghan is right there with four swims. Whoever leads off the 4×200 freestyle relay for Australia could make another entry on this list.
Day 3 Quick Hits
- Both Kaylee McKeown and Iona Anderson made it through to the women’s 100 backstroke final tomorrow night, which will feature two Australians, two Americans, two Canadians, and two French swimmers. McKeown dipped under 58 seconds for the first time at these Games with a 57.99 to win the second semifinal. She’ll have lane 5 tomorrow, right next to Regan Smith who posted the fastest time of the semis in 57.97, just .02 ahead of McKeown. As the fourth-fastest out of semis in 58.63, Anderson will swim on McKeown’s other side in her first Olympic final.
- Other finalists today included Ella Ramsey, who finished 5th in the women’s 400 IM, and Max Giuliani, who took 7th in the men’s 200 freestyle. Ramsey swam 4:38.01, while Giuliani clocked a 1:45.57.
Oceanian Medal Table Thru Day 3
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Australia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
Oceania recap??????? Erika Fairweather is from Oceania and she was in a 200 free final
What is the go with the Australian men? Almost total failure.
Silver in the relay on day 1. Elijah silver. Giuliani improved his time from trials. Sam Williamson and Sam Short are the only real misses compared to expectations.
Short was not too suprrising. Williamson on the other hand … do we have any insight what happened there?
like his pb would of won gold in the final. Crazy meet and crazier pool
If u are gonna speculate best time would have won gold, technically it wouldn’t have, cause u need to asume best times from everyone in that scenario.
Just saying. He would not have one if everyone was at their best. He’s too far behind
There was a strong general opinion that Titmus owns 200 FR LCM discipline and Mollie O’Callaghan is just an occasional guest who is mostly a good contributor to relay team. But just look at the data. They aren’t lying. Of 10 ever best performances Titmus has 5 and Molllie – 4. But Titmus swam this distance for 4 years more times than Mollie. And look at the quality of these performances: Mollie has 2 under 1:53 results, and Titmus only one. But this one is the world record. After this small extra step achieved Mollie O’Callaghan can be rightfully called the Queen of 200m FR distance.
Would you also call her Miss Australia?
I don’t think that was the feeling. Mollie was considered untouchable before trials and it was only after Arnie broke the WR that she even entered the conversation again.
It’s only a matter of time until Mollie makes this event her own and takes the world record back.
Totally dominant underwaters. Titmus takes 4 or 5 strokes before O’Callaghan surfaces. Somehow that variable was overlooked coming out of Australian trials. I think it didn’t receive enough attention because of the terrible camera angle at those trials. They were always switching from underwater view to topside just as the contrast would have been evident.
The schedule worked against Titmus. But I don’t think she would have won anyway. The trials result created a wrongful impression.
Now we’ll see how long it takes before other freestylers are emulating Mollie’s underwaters. It doesn’t merely apply to short course.
It’s been 15+ years and the top men aren’t really emulating Phelps/Lochte underwaters in the 200 free
She’s winning the 100. Her last 50 here was lethal (27.98). I knew she’d win
why didn’t boxall go berserk?
wasnt a world record – or against Ledecky.
He’s happy for both of his swimmers but also one of them just lost so he has to be balanced. If Mollie wins the 100 or Arnie wins the 800 I imagine he will be more animated. But then even in the 100 he needs to consider Shayna losing if Mollie wins.
Congrats Mollie, very happy for you. A great swim.