Paris 2024, North America Day 1: Torri Huske Earns Redemption On 4×100 Freestyle Relay

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

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• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
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Torri Huske‘s relay performance was one of the stories of the 2023 World Championships, but not quite in a positive way.

In the finals of the mixed medley relay that year, Huske split a time of 58.19 on her butterfly leg, which was over a second slower than her individual time of 56.61 and caused the Americans to lag behind. Her performance continued a trend of her swimming slower than her flat start time on relays in the 100 fly, and raised a concern — why can’t one of America’s fastest individual sprinters be trusted on relays?

A year later, at the Paris Olympics, Huske’s relay split is once again a story. But this time, it’s in a good way, and it kills the narrative that she can’t step up for her country in races like these.

Huske split a time of 52.06 on Team USA’s women’s 4×100 freestyle relay, recording the second-fastest split in the entire field (only Australia’s Meg Harris went faster). It wasn’t enough to help the Americans take down Australia, but she was the difference between Team USA getting silver or bronze, as the United States and China were separated by just 0.10 seconds. In addition, she was considerably faster than her flat start time of 52.92, proving that she’s capable of turning on that extra gear for a relay.

Yes, Huske has been faster than her flat start time before while swimming on freestyle relays (her relay weakness has primarily been in butterfly), and she’s also made positive relay contributions in the past. She stepped up for Team USA at the 2022 World Championships, swimming on three different relays while also racing four individual events. However, she’s never been as fast or as critical to a relay as she was on Saturday night.

Huske’s sub-par butterfly split from last year once stuck out like a sour memory. But getting a chance to be the X-factor on a successful, American-record breaking relay reminded us of how good she is, and how she’s an asset rather than a liability.

Sure, Huske still has plenty of other relay swims to complete, whether it be freestyle or butterfly. But now, her name will forever be associated with Olympic relay heroics and redemption.

Other Highlights:

• The squad of Caeleb Dressel, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong, and Jack Alexy dominated the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, collecting Team USA’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics. Canada finished sixth.
• Huske, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, and Simone Manuel won silver in the women’s 4×100 free relay, while Canada finished fourth.
• Canada’s Summer McIntosh won her first Olympic medal by taking 400 free silver, while the United States’ Katie Ledecky finished third to claim her 11th Olympic medal.
• Walsh, Huske, and Canada’s Maggie MacNeil all booked tickets to the 100 fly final, with Walsh breaking an Olympic record in her semi-final (55.38).
• The United States’ Nic Fink qualified for the 100 breast final, while Charlie Swanson placed 14th in semis and missed out.
• The United States’ Aaron Shackell finished eighth in the 400 free final.

North American Medal Table: