2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
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Nine glorious days of swimming at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are in the books. In the brief period after the Olympics, there is an afterglow, a processing, a fullness to the conclusion of really great stories, and an emptiness of not knowing what the new stories will be.
We take this debriefing to, among other things, review with the benefit of hindsight, who and what were the best of the spectacular meet we just watched.
While I think many of the men’s awards are fairly straight-forward, the women’s meet for me is full of big choices that are going to lead to some strong differing opinions. I’ll do my best to parse out why we chose the swimmers and swims we did for this, because even our staff didn’t agree on many of these.
Swimmer of the Meet – Summer McIntosh, Canada
This one was tough, but when we dug into the data, the winner was clear. McIntosh won 3 individual gold medals, 1 individual silver medal, set two Olympic Records, set two World Junior Records, and posted best times and Canadian Records in the 200 IM and 200 fly. Australian Kaylee McKeown won two individual golds, one individual silver, won a relay silver, won a relay bronze, set two Olympic Records, and tied a personal best in the 100 back. One of her Olympic Records was broken by Regan Smith later in the meet.
The difference then is distilled into whether you value 1 individual gold and 1 individual silver over an individual bronze, an individual silver, and an individual bronze. In general, I think the former category is better, and McKeown not being the star performer of any of those relays closes any doubt.
McIntosh, only 17, is already swimming in her second Olympic Team and is the future of world swimming on the women’s side. She won a marquee event against a marquee field in the 200 IM, she dominated the 400 IM by almost six seconds, and while she didn’t swim any best times, at this meet specifically, that isn’t really a super great metric.
I think we also need to recognize how she ended the meet, with a 53.29 in the 100 free to anchor Canada’s women’s 400 medley relay to 4th. On screen, it didn’t look like a great swim, because she was racing a group of sprint studs. But that’s the world’s best 400 IM’er doing that. Her flat-start best is 53.90. I think Canada’s better relay would have had her on fly and MacNeil on the anchor leg, but Summer rose to the occasion she was given.
Her ability to swim the most grueling 200 and 400 meter events on the schedule and also contribute to relays is…dare I say…Phelpsian? Cannot wait for the next four years to watch this talent develop.
Honorable Mentions, Female Swimmer of the Meet:
- Australian Kaylee McKeown completed a historic double-double, winning the 100 back and 200 back at the 2nd straight Olympics. In a certain pool and a certain circumstance, her finals swim in the 100 back, which tied her best time, would have been a World Record. As it was, that 57.33 was two tenths shy. I think it’s fair now to declare McKeown the best female backstroker in history, surpassing the legendary Krisztina Egerszegi, and into a 50/50 debate with Roland Matthes as the best backstroker in history, period.
- Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom winning the 50 free was expected, but her win in the 100 free wasn’t expected – even by her. She didn’t have any relays to lean on for extra medals, but her two gold medals cement her place in swimming history.
Swim of the Meet – U.S. Women’s 400 Medley Relay
The only World Record of the meet in a women’s meet, this American relay was sharp from start to finish. Regan Smith led off with a new Olympic Record and her best swim of the meet; Lilly King swam a full-relay-exchange better than her individual, Gretchen Walsh tied the fastest 100 fly split on a medley relay in history, and while Torri Huske wasn’t as good as she was in anchoring the mixed medley, she was still good enough to hold on for gold and the World Record.
This will go down as one of the most-complete medley relays we’ve ever had on the world stage. The front three legs are all the World Record holders in their respective events, and they swam like it in Paris.
Honorable Mentions, Swim of the Meet
- Summer McIntosh of Canada won what was the premier event of these Olympics, the women’s 200 IM, to solidify her status as the best female swimmer in Paris.
- Torri Huske of the United States split 51.88 on the anchor leg of the mixed medley relay, and the United States need every bit of that to pass China for gold and the World Record. For a swimmer who has been labeled a ‘relay liability’ over the last year after not having good performances in Fukuoka, she has become the American hero in a hurry.
Junior of the Meet – Summer McIntosh, Canada
The Swimmer of the Meet was a junior. How could this go any other way?
This was the best Olympic performance by a junior swimmer at the Olympics since at least Missy Franklin in 2012.
Honorable Mentions, Junior of the Meet
- Katie Grimes of the USA won silver in the 400 IM, and while she paid for it the next morning in the 1500 free, she was the only junior besides McIntosh to medal individually at the meet.
- There were surprisingly-few swimmers to even final at this meet, let alone medal, and Yu Yiting was among the closest to an individual medal. She won bronze as a prelims leg of the 400 free relay, another as the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay in finals, and finished 4th individually in the 200 IM.
- Alex Shackell of the United States won silver and gold, respectively, as a prelims leg of the American women’s 800 free relay and 400 medley relay, and also finished 6th in the 200 fly. Her 2:06.46 in the semifinals would have placed her 4th in the final.
- Iona Anderson of Australia did her part in prelims of the women’s medley relay (silver) and mixed medley relay (bronze), performing consistently through all three swims. Her women’s medley leadoff split of 58.67 was within .15 seconds of her Australian Age Record for 18-year-olds.
Breakout Swimmer of the Meet – Anastasia Kirpichnikova, France
In a meet with precious-few best times and even fewer breakout performances, Kirpichnikova dropped 8 seconds of her best time, broke a French Record in front of a French crowd, and took silver in the women’s 1500 free.
Kirpichnikova previously represented Russia internationally, but after years living and training in France, she was approved to represent France. That gave the home country fans, who were big the whole meet, one more excuse to cheer for the tricolore.
Honorable Mentions, Breakout Swimmer of the Meet
- Mona McSharry of Ireland took bronze in the 100 breaststroke, making her country’s first Olympic medal in swimming since Mona McSharry in 1996 and just the second Olympic medalist in swimming in her country’s history. That launched off momentum that led to Daniel Wiffen winning gold in the 800 free later in the meet.
- American Paige Madden had a best time of 8:32.46 in the 800 free at the 2023 US Pro Championships. At the Olympics she swam 8:13.00 and grabbed a bronze medal and made a race of it against superstars Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus. Her whole season was a big breakout. She was a well-known quantity in the US as a multi-time NCAA Champion, but is now a player globally.
Clutch Relay Performer – Torri Huske, USA
Huske’s 52.0 split on the 400 free relay third leg and 51.88 anchor on the mixed medley relay are a huge level-up for her, and the kind of relay splits that the U.S. needs to put on the board more often if they ever hope to catch up to Australia in the sprints.
By comparison, Mollie O’Callaghan, who on any given day is probably the best 100 freestyler in the world (though she missed the medals in a super tight finish at the Olympics) had a best split of 51.83 at the Games. Huske is a very good 100 freestyler – but she is not as good as O’Callaghan. Except when she was.
That’s the 29th-best relay split in history by any swimmer from anywhere in the world, and the 10th-best by a non-Australian.
Honorable Mentions, Clutch Relay Performer
- Regan Smith of the USA swam the fastest 100 backstroke of the Olympics when leading off the American medley relay.
- Ariarne Titmus of Australia was upset by her teammate Mollie O’Callaghan in the individual 200 free, but in the 800 free relay, Titmus ripped off a big 1:52.95 split.
- American Gretchen Walsh split 55.03 fly on the women’s medley, 55.18 on the mixed medley, and 52.55 on a rolling start on the American 400 free relay. Her best flat-start is 53.13, so to do a 52.55 in this pool, early in the meet when the times were not impressive, is big.
- Meg Harris of Australia has a lifetime best of 52.52 on a flat-start in the 100 free, and she split 51.94 to anchor Australia’s 400 free relay in finals. With some of the old guard aging out of the system, Harris, 22, feels like the key cog to the continuity of Australian dominance in the 400 free relay.
Off topic but what’s the reason why Ledecky doesn’t do open water? Seems like she’d be good at it
She has said she doesn’t like it
Totally understandable
Since this comments section seems to have spurred a number of “Backstroke GOAT” arguments I’m just going to post the numbers. I think the numbers clearly show McKeown as being superior, but it depends how much you discount Kaylee’s 50 and SCM achievements and how much credit you give Egerszegi for “what might have been”
McKeown
Olympic golds: 4
Olympic medals: 4
LCM WC gold: 4
LCM WC medals: 5
SCM WC gold: 2
SCM WC medals: 2
World records: 5 total in 4 events
Historic achievements: Worlds backstroke sweep, only woman ever to hold all 3 LCM WRs, Olympic double double, only woman to win 9 Olympic medals without ever missing… Read more »
Keep in mind that the Worlds during Egerszegi’s career were 86 (too early), 91, 94, 98 (too late).
The Worlds during McKeown’s were 17, 19, 22, 23, 24 (didn’t compete). So she’s already had twice as many, and Egerzegi was already 26 for Perth in 98, while McKeown will only be 24 next year.
This is fair. But even if you just take the best 2 of Kaylee’s 4, she still has twice as many golds. It’s not like Kaylee racked up 8 golds because she got a world champs every single year.
Another historic achievement for Egerszegi I’d put is having the greatest margin of victory in a women’s 200m event ever(?), when she won the 200 back by 4.15 seconds in 1996.
She was also very arguably robbed of the Olympic double double given that the gold medalist in 1988 was Kristin Otto
And refused to swim the 100bk after being beaten by PED swimmers in Rome in ‘94
SCM swimming is irrelevant in this comparison, because while it is still pretty unserious, it simply wasn’t on the radar in the 80s and 90s. I don’t know if Egerszegi even swam SCM.
You can only take that argument so far. If we exclude things that “weren’t on the radar”, then Dawn Fraser is clearly better than Ledecky.
The 200, 800 and 1500 weren’t Olympic events so only using events that were available to both of them, Dawn wins with 4 golds and a silver vs Ledecky’s 1 gold, 2 silver and a bronze.
You can’t just completely exclude an achievement because it wasn’t possible previously.
If you are making comparisons, yes, you can. You can’t achieve something that doesn’t exist. Regarding your Ledecky argument: new Olympic events are a world apart from a different pool format, which has never hosted an Olympic swimming event or any Championship in peak season with a full field.
Also, Egerszegi does have the double double. Otto was proven to be a d*per, her medals just weren’t taken away. The fastest clean woman in the 100 back at the 1988 Olympics was Egerszegi. She would also have a lot more World Championship medals if the 1990s medals were stripped away from the Chinese swimmers who were also proven d*pers. I can’t fathom why swimming against an unclean field would… Read more »
Hungarian swimming was entirely focused on long-course at the time. Both European and World Short-Course championships started up in the early 90s and Hungary sent no-one for the first few editions (not until a few years after Egerszegi had retired). It appears she did two or three world cup meets in her whole career, in 1995 setting the European short-course record in 100 back with a time slower than her long-course record
This probably was the first time that no Ledecky’s name was in the mix.
It’s bogus that Ledecky isn’t an honorable mention for best swimmer of the meet. I get that she’s not nearly as dominant as she was in ‘16, but she still won 2 individual golds with times faster than any other woman has gone in history. Frankly, I would put her meet ahead of Sjostrom’s — two more medals, including one individual.
Aside: In an interview with an Australian channel, Sharon (Kaylee’s mum) called the DQ “karma”
Not a good look
fr, it’s not like Walsh called for a DQ on McKeown at Worlds or something. They’re technically unrelated, and it was team Australia that did the bu-bu-bu-but she did it worse!! complaining the last time.
Two bad looks in a row, impressively done.
(Now, whether Walsh should’ve been completely on top of it here is another matter.)
Australia did not do the bu bu bu but she did it worse claim. They asked why one swimmer was DQ’d when it was clear that both turns were the same. I think any unbiased viewer would agree that at worlds either both should have been out or neither.
To be fair, I don’t think it came across the way she meant it. It was all related to how it affected Kaylee, not how it affected Alex. (Plus we all know that Alex’s turn last year was far more egregious than Kaylee’s turn).
Agreed with it being more about Kaylee than Alex, but still found it a little unnecessary. A bit disappointing because usually Kaylee prides herself on being too much of a good sport (correcting what Cate said last year without ever having watched the interview, etc.).
Hmmm I’d say it’s ironic but not karmic. That implies Alex had some malicious intent where obviously she had no control over how the officials made their decisions last year. If she’d pointed and laughed at Kaylee and then suffered the same fate, then sure, but highly doubt that happened.
She meant that Kaylee was correctly DQ in Fukuoka, learnt her lesson, executed the turn legally in Paris and medalled.
Alex was incorrectly not DQ in Fukoka, learnt nothing from the experience, executed the turn incorrectly in Paris costing herself a medal.
The McKeown’s seemingly have a “everything happens for a reason” mindset after the passing of Kaylee’s dad. The ‘karma’ being the DQ in Fukuoka was needed for the medal in Paris.
absolutely agree this was the intent.
Also just saw on Instagram that Maggie liked a comment (under her own post) saying why 100 free specialists Penny and Taylor weren’t used in the relay instead. Even though I agree with what she’s saying, surely it’s a bit soury to just throw your teammate under the bus like that?
Funny how strong recency bias can be in such a long meet, hope that last relay doesn’t diminish what a great meet Summer has had against one of the most talented women’s fields we have ever seen.
She could’ve liked the comment by mistake. It happens all the time for me with Instagram.
Not likely. If you see you made a mistake you just click again and undo it
Because they weren’t as fast as Summer in the 4×100 Free Relay. Adding relay takeover times. The better question is why weren’t Penny and Taylor swimming faster. Canada could have had 3 very good relays if they were anywhere near their best.
Also it wouldn’t have made up the 6/10ths for bronze. Lastly Summer was 24.89 at the 50. What happened that 2nd 50. She has speed!
When was the last time they were at their best?
Seems the ‘like’ was removed, Maggie surely had read SS comments!
Thanks. That’s undoubtedly what happened. Maggie read this thread and changed it so she won’t face scrutiny.
It won’t diminish what Summer has achieved at these games one iota. Winning 4 individual medals including 3 gold at the age of 17 is fantastic. Only 10 other female swimmers in the history of the summer Olympics have won 3 individual golds in a single games and now Summer is the 11th to do so.
If Summer walked away from the sport tomorrow she would still be one of the top 3 Canadian swimmers of all time along side Alex Baumann and Penny Oleksiak.
For sure, the list of other ten is also incredibly impressive (posted this in the prelims of 2IM when I was a tad too excited lol) – Otto, Ender, Ledecky, Gould, de Brujin, Hosszu, Smith, Meyer, Evans, Egerszegi.
Also had to step up in two other relays which I was scared was going to affect her 2IM, luckily it didn’t!
I mean, if you had to split hairs in your comparison of McIntosh and McKeown……Summer beat her head-on in their only race together…..
I don’t think there is any need to split hairs. GGGS is objectively much better than GGB. There isn’t really an argument for Kaylee to be above Summer at all. Maybe if Kaylee had 2 relay golds you might start asking questions but even then probably not.
It never should have been debated in the first place. Who did McKeown defeat other than Regan Smith? She lost on the square to McIntosh, Douglass and Walsh.
McIntosh defeated a who’s who…Ledecky, Regan, Douglass, McKeown, Walsh, while losing only to Titmus.
The only reason for this thread in the first place was all the pre-meet nonsense doubting Summer McIntosh. Rowdy is already trembling. He knows darn well that one more Olympics like this vaults McIntosh ahead of Ledecky as best of all time. That’s simple reality. Recency and diversity rules.
Feels strange that Ledecky was only mentioned with Paige Madden – award for anchor of Team USA?? Ledecky had two individual gold medals. She deserves recognition
Congratulations to Mona McSharry being Ireland’s first Mona McSharry to win a medal at an Olympics since Mona McSharry in 1996!
Is she taking a COVID-19 fifth year at the University of Tennessee or going pro?