2024 Paris Olympics Day 4 Finals: Fun Facts

With three very-highly anticipated events in the women’s 100 backstroke, men’s 800 freestyle, and men’s 4×200 freestyle relay, night 4’s finals did not disappoint. We saw Léon Marchand complete the semifinal dirty double of the 200 butterfly and 200 breaststroke, multiple world record holders fight to defend their titles, and Great Britain repeat in the 800 freestyle relay. Here’s some fun facts about tonight’s finals sessions:

MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE

• Jordan Crooks became the highest finisher in the history of the Cayman Islands, swimming a 48.10 to place 13th. The previous highest finisher from the nation was Brett Fraser in 2012, who placed 15th.
• Pan Zhanle made up for his prelims performance (swimming a 48.4 to just barely make the semifinals), with a blistering 47.21 out of lane 8. This time places him at the top of the semis by an impressive 0.37 seconds. 
• Pan became China’s first-ever finalist in the 100 freestyle, and he looks to win their first ever medal in the event tomorrow night.
• Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano have the chance to continue a 16-year legacy of American medalists in this event. Kyle Chalmers can continue an even longer, 20-year streak of Australian medalists in the men’s 100 freestyle.

MEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY

• Kregor Zirk set a new national record for Estonia, placing third in the first semifinal of the 200 butterfly. Zirk will have a chance to lower this record again in tomorrow night’s final. With this swim, Zirk becomes Estonia’s first ever finalist in this event, improving on his previous performance from the Tokyo Olympics, where he placed 25th.
• Kristof Milak will be back in the finals of the event that he holds the world record in, looking to defend his gold medal from the Tokyo Olympics. 
• Switzerland’s Noe Ponti became the country’s first-ever finalist in this event, bettering his 10th-place performance from Tokyo. 

WOMEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE

• Kaylee McKeown went back-to-back in the 100 backstroke, successfully defending her Tokyo gold medal. She became the second swimmer in history to accomplish such a feat, behind Natalie Coughlin in 2004 and 2008. With her time of 57.33, McKeown breaks her own previous Olympic record of 57.47. 
• McKeown and silver medalist Regan Smith join a select group of four other swimmers (Coughlin, Kristy Coventry, Krisztina Egerszegi, and fourth-place swimmer Kylie Masse) to win multiple Olympic medals.
• Smith and Katharine Berkoff, the second and third place finishers in this event, earned the United States’ 25th and 26th medals in the 100 backstroke. 
• Berkoff’s father David won a silver medal for the United States in the men’s 100 backstroke in 1988.
• This is the first Olympics we’ve seen where all three medalists swam faster than 58.00 seconds. 

MEN’S 800 FREESTYLE

• Daniel Wiffen broke Mykhailo Romanchuk’s Olympic record of 7:41.28 (set in heats in Tokyo) with a 7:38.19. In doing so, he became the first Irishman to win any sort of medal at the Olympic Games. 
• Wiffen and women’s 100 breaststroke Mona McSharry are Ireland’s first medalists since 1996, and the second and third medalists of all time for the country.
• Not only did Wiffen break the Olympic record, he also broke his own European record of 7:39.19.
• Bobby Finke and Gregorio Paltrinieri became dual-medalists in the 800 freestyle, both going 2/2 on this event’s podium. Finke was the gold medalist in Tokyo, and Paltrinieri was the silver medalist.
• All three of the medalists were faster than the gold-medal winning time (7:41.87) from Tokyo.

WOMEN’S 100 FREESTYLE

• Slovenia’s Neza Klancar now holds the highest place from any Slovenian woman in the 100 freestyle, finishing 14th with a time of 53.96. The country’s previous best swim came from Janji Segel, who placed 24th in 2021. 
• Siobhan Haughey, seeded first going into tomorrow’s final, has the chance to win a second medal in the 100 freestyle for her home country of Hong Kong. 
• Sarah Sjostrom, who originally wasn’t going to swim this event in Paris, is now heading to the final, seeded sixth. 

MEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE

• Zac Stubblety-Cook, seeded 2nd coming out of the semifinals, remains the only medalist from Tokyo to return to the finals to defend his medal. Silver medalist Arno Kamminga pulled out of the semifinals after an injury, and Bronze medalist Matti Mattsson was 18th coming out of prelims.
• Denis Petrashov from Kyrgyzstan now holds the highest place from a Kyrgyzstani man in the men’s 200 breaststroke, placing 14th. The previous best place from the country came from Aleksandr Tkachev in 2000, with a 16th place finish.
• Bulgarian Lyubomir Epitropov placed 9th in this year’s semifinal, making him Bulgaria’s highest finisher in this event, bettering his previous performance from Tokyo, where he was 15th. 
• Korea’s Cho Sung Jae, after placing 12th in the semifinals, becomes South Korea’s best placer in the men’s 200 breaststroke, finishing higher than his 19th place finish in Tokyo. 

MEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY

• The United States wins its 6th silver medal in this event, bringing the country’s total medal count to 25.
• Great Britain wins its 3rd gold medal in this event, with their first being in 1908 and their most recent being at the Tokyo Games in 2021. 
• Duncan Scott and James Guy win their third medals in this event, placing them among an elite group of five swimmers who have won three or more medals as a member of this relay (Including 4-time medalists Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, and 3-time medalists Klete Keller, Grant Hackett, and Henry Taylor). 
• Duncan Scott had the fastest split in the field, anchoring for Great Britain in a time of 1:43.95. Kieran Smith (United States) and Woomin Kim (South Korea) were the only other swimmers to go under 1:45, with Smith going a 1:44.80 and Kim going a 1:44.98.