2024 Paris Olympics: Day 9 Finals Live Recap

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
• Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8
• Finals Live Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6| Day 7 | Day 8

DAY 9 FINALS HEAT SHEET

“And now, the end is near, And so I face the final curtain My friend, I’ll say it clear…” This is the last session of these Olympics.

DAY 9 FINALS SCHEDULE

• Women’s 50 Freestyle – Final
• Men’s 1500 Freestyle – Final
• Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay – Final
• Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay – Final

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom chases after her own World record in the first event. After posting an Olympic record in the semis, the sprinters is just .05 shy of her all time best. Chasing after her is the USA’s Gretchen Walsh and Poland’s Kasia Wasick, but so too are Australia’s Meg Harris and Shayna Jack, and while they all trail Sjostrom by a good margin, it is just a 50 so anything could happen.

From the shortest race on the women’s side we transition to the longest on the men’s side as Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen will look to double up his golds in the men’s distance events. Threats loom from Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri and the USA’s Bobby Finke, both of whom are past champions in this event and are hungry for another chance at gold. While not as close as Sjostrom, the world record was thought to be under attack pre-meet so it could come into play if they are all working and pushing each other.

We end as we always do with the Medley Relays. The USA men will look to defend their title or rather titles as they have won the event at every staging (except at the 1980 boycotted Games). Pressure likely comes from the Chinese, who will have the strength of Pan Zhanle on the anchor, and from the French, who have not only Leon Marchand but the crowd on their side.

The US women look to crush this relay and regain the Olympic crown from Australia, and with a stacked line-up, appear to be on their way. With Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, fresh off a World record last night, can they earn their second one in as many days as the mark of 3:50.40 looks to be potentially under threat.

WOMEN’S 50 FREESTYLE – FINALS

• World Record: 23.61 – Sarah Sjostrom, SWE (2023)
• World Junior Record: 24.17 – Claire Curzan, USA (2021)
• Olympic Record: 23.66 – Sarah Sjostrom, SWE (2024)
• 2021 Winning Time: 23.81 – Emma McKeon, AUS
• 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 24.21

Podium

1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) – 23.71
2. Meg Harris (AUS) – 23.97
3. Zhang Yufei (CHN) – 24.20
4. Gretchen Walsh (USA) – 24.21
5. Katarzyna Wasick (POL) – 24.33
6. Neza Klancar (SLO) – 24.35
7. Wu Qingfeng (CHN) – 24.37
8. Shayna Jack (AUS) – 24.39

Emerging from the pool to take in what she had accomplished, Sarah Sjostrom gave a wave and bow to the crowd of her adoring fans.

Sjostrom recorded the fastest reaction time of .61, but Gretchen Walsh‘s start and underwaters gave her the early lead as they swimmers broke out of their streamlines and started their strokes. Sjostrom, who broke the Olympic record in the semifinals yesterday, quickly got into gear and passed Walsh by the halfway point.

As the field surged toward the final wall, Sjostrom continued to increase her lead and in one final stroke to the wall, stopped the clock at 23.71. While not her fastest time, as we have previously mentioned, it’s placing in the finals that matters most, and the Swedish star will still be very happy with her 2nd individual gold medal of the meeting after a surprising win in the 100 free.

Despite the relative slowness of the time (for her), Sjostrom still owns 17 of the fastest 26 times ever and no other swimmer has ever in fact been faster than her winning time of 23.71.

And while a margin of victory of a quarter of a second is a lot, Meg Harris‘ silver medal-winning time of 23.97 still stands out. Not only is it a personal best for the Australian, but it ties her for the 12th fastest performer of all time and tied for third as the fastest Australian (equal with Libby Trickett).

Swimming out of lane 7, her time also stands out as it was the first time in Olympic history that the final of the women’s 50 had two swimmers sub-24. China’s Zhang Yufei collected her 4th bronze medal of the meet, touching the wall in 24.20, just .01 ahead of Gretchen Walsh‘s 24.21.

MEN’S 1500 Freestyle – Finals

• World Record: 14:31.02 – Sun Yang, CHN (2012)
• World Junior Record: 14:46.09 – Franko Grgic, CRO (2019)
• Olympic Record: 14:31.02 – Sun Yang, CHN (2012)
• 2021 Winning Time: 14:39.65 – Bobby Finke, USA
• 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 14:40.91

Podium

1. Bobby Finke (USA) – 14:30.67 ***NEW WORLD RECORD***
2. Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) – 14:34.55
3. Daniel Wiffen (IRE) – 14:39.63
4. David Bethlehem (HUN) – 14:40.91
5. Kuzey Tuncelli (TUR) – 14:41.22 ***NEW WORLD JUNIOR RECORD***
6. Ahmed Jaouadi (ALG) – 14:43.35
7. David Aubry (FRA) – 14:44.66
8. Damien Joly (FRA) – 14:52.61

It may not have been the race we were expecting, but it certainly was the race that we needed.

After shocking the world in 2021 with his incredible come-from-behind wins and with the world adapting to his ability to “Finke” swimmers in the closing meters, last summer, the American took the 1500 out in a completely different strategy.

Finke led from start to finish and never looked back. Training under Anthony Nesty at a strong Florida pro group that contains the likes of Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, Finke was 1:53.59 at the 200 and 3:50.38 at the 400, nearly two seconds ahead of Gregorio Paltrinieri and full second ahead of Sun Yang’s World record pace.

By the 800 Finke continued this abnormal strategy and continued to attack the race holding 29 lows and was 7:45.18 at the 800, still under the World Record pace. Paltrinieri, for his part, had seemingly recovered from the shock of Finke’s early attacks and was within a second of the American, splitting 7:45.72. However, as planned, Finke quickly brought his splits back down to 29.1 (and even one to 28.94) and opened up the lead on both Sun’s WR and Paltrinieri.

In the closing lengths, it seemed like Finke’s win was never in doubt, but Sun was known to have closed his race fast, and WR started to creep up. Coming home in 26.27, Finke had built enough of a lead on the virtual Sun to hold off his unworldly 25.68 last 50 and break the World Record by .35. While Finke was processing it all, Paltrinieri finished in 14:34.55, nearly four seconds back, but still fast enough to win the silver.

Finishing in 14:39.63 and winning the bronze medal was Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen, who, after settling into 3rd at the 400 mark, was unable to use his backhalf speed to catch up to the early leaders and never seemed to replicate what drove him to win the 800.

MEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY – Finals

• World Record: 3:26.78 – USA (2021)
• Olympic Record: 3:26.78 – USA (2021)
• 2021 Winning Time: 3:26.78 – USA
• 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 3:29.17

Podium

1. China (Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun, Pan Zhanle)- 3:27.46
2. USA (Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel, Hunter Armstrong) – 3:28.01
3. France (Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Leon Machand, Maxime Grousset, Florent Manaudou)- 3:28.38
4. Great Britain (Oliver Morgan, Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, Matthew Richards)- 3:29.60
5. Canada (Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun, Josh Liendo)- 3:31.27
6. Australia (Isaac Cooper, Joshua Yong, Matthew Temple, Kyle Chalmers)- 3:31.86
7. Germany (Ole Braunschweig, Melvin Imoudu, Luca Armbruster) – 3:32.46
8. Netherlands (Kai van Westering, Caspar Corbeau, Nyls Korstanje, Josha Salchow) – 3:32.52

Curtain. The United States Men’s 400 Medley Relay dominance has come to an end. However, it was not with a whimper or quietly, as the Relay was one of the most engaging of the week.

The top three teams from prelims took center stage and dueled back and forth, and at one point, they all looked like they could win.

The USA’s Ryan Murphy took the race out fast and led at the 50-meter mark, but gave up some ground on the backhalf to both China’s Xu Jiayu and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, with the former passing the American and getting the Chinese off to a fast start. Handing it off to Qin Haiyang, China built their lead on every team as Qin split until 58 (57.98) and gave the Chinese more than a second lead on their nearest competitors, which included Team GB, who on the backs of 58.16 split from Adam Peaty had jumped into second.

With the fly legs in the water, the Parisian crowd roared even louder as Maxime Grousset, the French butterflier, came out in a blistering 22.36 and pulled France into the lead. His split of 49.57 was more than a second and a half faster than the Chinese’s 51.19 and would have seen France have clean water to both sides had it not been for Caeleb Dressel’s 49.41, which saw Team USA close from 4th to just being .03 out of first.

With the tall anchors in the water for the French and the American teams, it was up to China’s Pan Zhanle to close the gap. The World record holder in the 100 free was out in a speedy 21.57 and has closed significantly on Florent Manaudou (22.05) and Hunter Armstrong (22.32) and did not let up as he posted a blistering 45.92 split, the fastest ever, to bring the Chinese from 3rd to 1st in a time of 3:27.46. Armstrong, who threw down a 46.75 split earlier in the meet, had to settle for the silver as he closed in 47.19. Manaudou, whose 47.59 was not fast enough to hold off the Americans, had to settle for the bronze, but the result is still a marvelous achievement as it is a new French record.

WOMEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY – Finals

• World Record: 3:50.40 – USA (2019)
• Olympic Record: 3:51.60 – AUS (2021)
• 2021 Winning Time: 3:51.60 – AUS
• 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 3:52.60

Podium

1. USA (Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske) – 3:49.63 ***NEW WORLD RECORD***
2. Australia (Kaylee McKeown, Jenna Strauch, Emma McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan)- 3:53.11
3. China (Wan Letian, Tang Qianting, Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan)- 3:53.23
4. Canada (Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus, Maggie MacNeil, Summer McIntosh) – 3:53.91
5. Japan (Rio Shirai, Satomi Suzuki, Mizuki Hirai, Rikako Ikee)- 3:56.17
6. France (Emma Terebo, Charlotte Bonnet, Marie Wattel, Beryl Gastaldello)- 3:56.29
7. Sweden (Hanna Rosvall, Sophie Hansson, Louise Hansson, Sarah Sjostrom) – 3:56.92
8. Netherlands (Maaike de Waard, Tes Schouten, Tess Giele, Marrit Steenbergen) – 3:59.52

Words are hard to come by, and as someone who has been told to be less verbose, that’s saying something.

We previewed the event with the emergence of Gretchen Walsh as a long-course fly sprinter (and world record holder) and Regan Smith retaking the World Record in the 100 back, that the US women could easily break the World record and even get into the unfathomable sub-3:50 territory. Yet the perceived slowness of the pool and some off performances threw some doubt into the mix.

But the US put it all together and absolutely demolished 3:50.40 by almost a second as the quartet of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske posted a mark of 3:49.63.

The opening leg was round three of the Smith vs. McKeown vs Masse backstroke battle. Kaylee McKeown came out on top in both of the individual events, but Smith, who seemingly has always performed better on relays, attacked the first 50 and was out in 27.84, ahead of Masse’s 28.11 and McKeown’s 28.15. Smith opened up her lead even more, hitting the wall in 57.28, a time that not only was faster than her individual 100 time, but also fast enough to gold and to rewrite the Olympic record.

Handing it off to Lilly King, the Americans never looked in danger from this point on. King was just shy of winning an individual medal but, like Smith, feeds on the pressure and crowd exuberance that a relay brings and swam the fastest breaststroke split in the field, her 1:04.90, far ahead of 100 breaststroke silver medalist Tan Qianting’s 1:05.79.

King’s prowess had pulled the US ahead of its opponents by over 1.5 seconds, and Gretchen Walsh, the 100 fly silver medalist and world record holder, would only extend it as she stomped out a 55.03 split, which was half a second faster than China’s Zhang Yufei split of 55.52 and Maggie MacNeil’s mark of 55.79.

Torri Huske, with a lead of over three seconds, could have split 55.42 and still won, but out in 24.85, she came home in 52.42 to have the US close the meet out in World Record fashion. Chopping off .77 of a second from the previous mark, the win handed King her first gold medal of the meet, Smith and Walsh their second, and Huske her third.

In a tight battle for silver, Mollie O’Callghan g0t her hand onto the wall ahead of China’s Yang Junxuan, splitting 51.83 to Yang’s 52.11. Canada, which had been in 2nd after the breast and fly leg closed with 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM gold medalist Summer McIntosh, who, despite those accolades, could not keep the Canadians in consideration splitting 53.29.

(As an aside, I want to thank all of you for following all of our coverage of the Olympics pool swimming)