Australian Women Break Olympic Record With 7:38.08 4×200 Free Relay

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

WOMEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY – SEMIFINALS

  • World Record: 7:37.50 – Australia (2023)
  • Olympic Record: 7:40.33 – China (2021)
  • 2021 Winning Time: 7:40.33 – China (2021)
  • 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 7:41.29

Podium

  1. Australia (M. O’Callaghan, L. Pallister, B. Throssell, A. Titmus) – 7:38.08 ***NEW OLYMPIC RECORD***
  2. USA (C. Weinstein, P. Madden, K. Ledecky, E. Gemmell) – 7:40.86
  3. China (Yang J., Li, B., Ge, C., Liu, Y.) – 7:42.34
  4. Canada – 7:46.05
  5. Great Britain – 7:48.23
  6. Hungary – 7:50.52
  7. Brazil – 7:52.90
  8. New Zealand – 7:55.89

The Australian women swam to a new Olympic Record in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. That broke the previous record of a 7:40.33 that China swam to win the event three years ago in Tokyo. That record by China also broke the World Record at the time.

The Australian women hold the World Record after swimming a 7:37.50 last summer at the 2023 World Championships.

Split Comparison

Australia 2024
China 2020(1)
1st Leg Mollie O’Callaghan 1:53.52 Yang Junxuan 1:54.37
2nd Leg Lani Pallister 1:55.61 Tang Muhan 1:55.00
3rd Leg Brianna Throssell 1:56.00 Zhang Yufei 1:55.66
4th Leg Ariarne Titmus 1:52.95 Li Bingjie 1:55.30
7:38.08 7:40.33

The biggest split tonight was Ariarne Titmus, who blasted a 1:52.95 on the anchor leg. Titmus notably is the World Record holder in the individual 200 freestyle after swimming a 1:52.23 in June at Australian Olympic Trials.

Mollie O’Callaghan notably led off in a 1:53.52 tonight, getting the relay ahead of record pace right from the start as they never trailed the record or any of their other competitors tonight. O’Callaghan swam a 1:53.27 in the individual event earlier this week for gold, setting an Olympic Record in the process as well.

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Southerly Buster
3 months ago

So Australia have now won the majority of Olympic women’s relays at 4 of the last 6 Olympics.

Australia winning 2 women’s relays in 2004, 2008, 2021 and 2024. USA winning 2 in 2012 and 2016.

Barty’s Bakery
Reply to  Southerly Buster
3 months ago

Just wait til Sienna gets another year under her and we drop 2s on the breast leg

Troyy
Reply to  Barty’s Bakery
3 months ago

They’ll still have a massive advantage in the fly leg and their freestyle leg has improved greatly.

Kris
3 months ago

Covid is joke. Lani Pallister is already healthly

JimSwim22
3 months ago

It’s so much harder to get 4 great swims in an 800 compared to the other 2 relays

Dan
3 months ago

Wow

Lia
3 months ago

Seeing Titmus float on water was beautiful. Aussie’s and their beautiful stroke 😍

Verram
3 months ago

Wouldn’t Mollie’s lead off time of 1.53.52 be close to the American record, relatively speaking ?

Barty’s Bakery
Reply to  Verram
3 months ago

It’s faster. American record is 1:53.6

About Anya Pelshaw

Anya Pelshaw

Anya has been with SwimSwam since June 2021 as both a writer and social media coordinator. She was in attendance at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Women's NCAA Championships writing and doing social media for SwimSwam. She also attended 2023 US Summer Nationals as well as the 2024 European Championships …

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