Australian Women Break Own Olympic Record With 3:28.92 4×100 Free Relay

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

WOMEN’S 4×100-METER FREESTYLE RELAY – FINAL

  • World Record: 3:27.96 – Australia (M. O’Callaghan, S. Jack, M. Harris, E. McKeon), 2023 
  • World Junior Record: 3:36.19 – Canada (T. Ruck, P. Oleksiak, R. Smith, K. Sanchez), 2017
  • Olympic Record: 3:29.69 – Australia (B. Campbell, C. Campbell, M. Harris, E. McKeon), 2021
  • 2021 Winning Time: 3:29.69 – Australia (B. Campbell, C. Campbell, M. Harris, E. McKeon)
  • 2021 Bronze Medal Winning Time: 3:32.81

Final: 

  1. GOLD: Australia (O’Callaghan, Jack, McKeon, Harris), 3:28.92
  2. SILVER: USA (Douglass, G. Walsh, Huske, Manuel), 3:30.20
  3. BRONZE: China (Yang, Cheng, Zhang, Wu), 3:30.30
  4. Canada, 3:32.99
  5. Sweden, 3:33.79
  6. France, 3:34.99
  7. Great Britain, 3:35.25
  8. Italy, 3:36.51

The Australian women broke their own Olympic Record swimming to a 3:28.52, capturing the country’s first gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The team broke their own Olympic Record of a 3:29.69 that they set back at the 2020 Tokyo Games in a 3:29.69.

That former Olympic Record was a World Record at the time. The same four who swam today broke the World Record last year in a 3:27.96 winning the 2023 World title.

Split Comparison

AUSTRALIA – 2024 Paris Olympics AUSTRALIA – TOKYO 2020 (2021) OLYMPICS
AUSTRALIA – 2023 WORLD CHAMPS
1st Mollie O’Callaghan (52.24) Bronte Campbell (53.01)
Mollie O’Callaghan (52.08)
2nd Shayna Jack (52.35) Meg Harris (53.09)
3rd Emma McKeon (52.39) Emma McKeon (51.35)
4th Meg Harris (51.94) Cate Campbell (52.24)
FINAL TIME 3:28.52 3:29.69 3:27.96

Meg Harris had the fastest split today with a 51.94 on the anchor leg. O’Callaghan was slightly off her time that helped break the World Record a year ago but today’s split was still almost a second faster than Bronte Campbell led off in a 53.01.

In typical O’Callaghan fashion, she came home fast on the first leg of the relay. She was 4th at the 50 mark but came home strong to put the relay ahead at the first exchange. The team never looked back, leading the rest of the race.

In This Story

9
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

9 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Craig Mac's
3 months ago

Who were the 5th and 6th members of this relay?

Admin
Reply to  Craig Mac's
3 months ago

There are only four swimmers in a standard swimming relay.

If you’re asking about prelims swimmers, Olivia Wunsch and Bronte Campbell swam in the heats but not the finals.

Backnbutter
3 months ago

Msg Harris anchoring was unexpected to most swim fans.

However despite being 3rd at trials, You can make a case Harris has been the 2nd best Aussie 100free being MOC. Also Meg and Mollie are the future of this team likely taking team Aus into Brisbane 2032. Why not blood her now while there is a good safety margin – that’s my take as couch coach!

Personal Best
3 months ago

I’m curious as to the reasoning behind having Meg anchor the relay.

It worked well, just curious to know why the coaches selected that lineup.

Meg performed so well, with great confidence. Wish she was swimming the individual 100, but next time hopefully.

Barty’s Bakery
3 months ago

This wasn’t the first gold. Arnie was the first gold in the poll, but we also won a cycling gold yesterday which was our first overall

Southerly Buster
3 months ago

Congratulations to Meg Harris. They gave her the anchor leg for the first time and she produced the fastest split of the race 51.94. A great swim.

Nelly
3 months ago

A win’s a win, but the rest of the world is catching up! This relay was the first time for both USA and China where all their swimmers managed 52.x splits and we’ll be losing a bankable 51-52 low split in McKeon after this Olympic cycle (as well as reliable relay stalwarts C1 and C2, even if neither made it to the final here).

Hopefully Wunsch isn’t affected by her rough prelims lead-off and continues her improvement trajectory and the others stay at the top of their game or we could be at risk of losing the five-peat come LA (an absurd statement in itself!)

Madge
Reply to  Nelly
3 months ago

Let’s just enjoy the moment shall we, instead of worrying about their decline.

Skip
Reply to  Nelly
3 months ago

By 2028 there will be others, stop casting doubt so far out

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 …

Read More »