Sunday, August 1, 2021
U.S. Olympic Swim Team Closes Pool Competition with 30 Medals
The final session of pool swimming at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 featured an incredible performance from the U.S. Olympic Swim Team, capturing medals in four of five events and a new world record in the final event of the competition. The U.S. ends the pool swimming portion of the competition with 30 total medals—11 gold, 10 silver and nine bronze—to sit atop the swimming medal table heading into the open water 10K on August 4.
Caeleb Dressel (Green Cove Springs, Fla./Gator Swim Club) opened the night for the U.S. with an incredible showing in the 50m freestyle, going 21.07 to win gold in Olympic-record fashion. His time is three tenths faster than any other American has ever gone and was three one-hundredths off his own American record.
With the gold medal, Dressel becomes the fourth American to ever capture the Olympic title in the event. The win gives him gold medals in all three of his individual event in Tokyo – the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Michael Andrew would finish fourth in the event as well, going 21.60 to finish three one-hundredths outside of the podium. In individual events, Andrew leaves Tokyo with Olympic finalist titles in the 50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 200m I.M.
In the women’s event, Abbey Weitzeil (Santa Clarita, Calif./California Aquatics) entered as the fourth seed a stacked event. She got off the blocks with a .64 reaction time, the third fastest in the field, and would go on to finish eighth in 24.41, just two tenths outside of a medal position. Weitzeil leaves Tokyo with two relay medals and the title of Olympic finalist in the 50- and 100m freestyle.
Going from the shortest event to the longest event, the final of the men’s 1500m freestyle trotted out to the blocks for the last individual race in the pool at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Bobby Finke (Clearwater, Fla./Saint Petersburg Aquatics/University of Florida) entered the race in lane five, up against decorated distance swimmers Mykhalio Romanchuk (Ukraine), Florian Wellbrock (Germany) and Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) among others.
The race went out quick, but quickly saw the four aforementioned swimmers separate themselves from the pack. Finke bounced between third and fourth for each of the first 1,350 meters before showcasing his back-half speed. Going into the final 50 meters, Finke touched second at just a single hundredth behind Romanchuk. Then, like his swim in the 800m freestyle, Finke had a jaw-dropping last 50 meters, going 25.78 in the final split to win the race by a full second.
“Our whole team (at University of Florida) is always sprinting,” Finke said. “Especially a couple of our distance guys – Alfonso Mestre, Brennan Gravley, even Kieran (Smith) sometimes is hopping in with our group. We’re always going all out in that last rep, so without them, I don’t think I’d be able to have that finishing speed. Big thank you to those guys.”
“I came in trying to medal. I knew that the competition was really tough, those guys have been there for years now, especially (Gregorio) Paltrinieri. I’ve looked up to them ever since I first saw them swim. To be able to race with them is a big honor.”
The second-to-last race of the session was the women’s 4x100m medley relay, where the U.S. was represented by Regan Smith (Lakeville, Minn./Riptide), Lydia Jacoby (Seward, Alaska/Seward Tsunami Swim Club), Torri Huske (Arlington, Va./Arlington Aquatic Club) and Weitzeil.
The team was strong from the start, seeing a 58.05 backstroke split from Smith, which is tied for the 14th-fastest 100m backstroke in history. Jacoby and Huske posted strong breaststroke and butterfly splits of their own, going 1:05.03 and 56.16, respectively, to leave the U.S. in first by a quarter of a second heading into the freestyle leg. Weitzeil and Australia’s Cate Campbell battled in the final 100 meters, ultimately seeing Campbell steer Australia to gold in an Olympic-record time of 3:51.60 while the U.S. won silver in 3:51.73.
“I feel like Regan (Smith) did a great job at getting us the lead in the beginning, then Lydia (Jacoby) even more so and Abbey (Weitzeil) just brought it home like a champ,” Huske said. “I’m so thankful that I got this opportunity to swim with such amazing women. It was so much fun being with you guys.”
Rhyan White (Herriman, Utah/University of Alabama/WFFM), Lilly King (Evansville, Ind./Indiana Swim Club), Claire Curzan (Cary, N.C./TAC Titans) and Erika Brown (Modesto, Calif./Tennessee Aquatics) win medals as well via their prelim swim for the U.S. in the event.
The final event of the Tokyo morning was the men’s 4x100m medley relay, where the U.S. sent out Ryan Murphy (Jacksonville, Fla./California Aquatics/Bolles), Andrew, Dressel and Zach Apple (Trenton, Ohio/Mission Viejo Nadadores) to try to become the 10th-consecutive U.S. team to win Olympic gold in the event.
Murphy went out in 52.31 in his backstroke leg, handing the relay off to Andrew with the U.S. in first place. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty challenged Andrew in the breaststroke, but Andrew’s 58.49 split kept the U.S. in a medal position before Dressel took over with a 49.03 butterfly swim. The race came down to Apple versus Great Britain’s Duncan Scott to try and claim gold, but it was Apple’s 46.95, one of only two freestyle splits in the field under :47, to propel the U.S. to gold in a new world-record time of 3:26.78.
“To have two world-record holders and the fastest American breaststroker ever in front of me gives me a lot of confidence and kind of set the tone for that relay,” Apple said.
“I think we knew, given kind of the composite splits that we have put together just this week, that we could put together a special performance,” Murphy added. “That is all the hype we needed. We were really, really excited to go into that one – really excited to show what we could do and really proud of the result.”
The U.S. has now captured gold in every Olympic men’s 4x100 medley relay since 1984, and has won the event in 14 out of 15 Olympic Games competitions. The world-record time breaks an 11-year record that was previously held by the U.S. team of Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, Michael Phelps and David Walters at the 2009 World Championships.
Hunter Armstrong (Dover, Ohio/Ohio State University/CCS), Andrew Wilson (Bethesda, Md./Athens Bulldog Swim Club), Tom Shields (Huntington Beach, Calif./California Aquatics) and Blake Pieroni (Valparaiso, Ind./Sandpipers of Nevada/Indiana University) all earn medals as well via their prelim swim in the event.
The U.S. now looks to the open water 10K events to complete its medal count. The women’s event, featuring the U.S. duo of Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif./Mission Viejo Nadadores) and Ashley Twichell (Fayetteville, N.Y./TAC Titans), will be swum on August 4 (Japan Standard Time) while the men’s event, featuring Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./KSwim) will be swum on August 5.
Caeleb Dressel (Green Cove Springs, Fla./Gator Swim Club) opened the night for the U.S. with an incredible showing in the 50m freestyle, going 21.07 to win gold in Olympic-record fashion. His time is three tenths faster than any other American has ever gone and was three one-hundredths off his own American record.
With the gold medal, Dressel becomes the fourth American to ever capture the Olympic title in the event. The win gives him gold medals in all three of his individual event in Tokyo – the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Michael Andrew would finish fourth in the event as well, going 21.60 to finish three one-hundredths outside of the podium. In individual events, Andrew leaves Tokyo with Olympic finalist titles in the 50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 200m I.M.
In the women’s event, Abbey Weitzeil (Santa Clarita, Calif./California Aquatics) entered as the fourth seed a stacked event. She got off the blocks with a .64 reaction time, the third fastest in the field, and would go on to finish eighth in 24.41, just two tenths outside of a medal position. Weitzeil leaves Tokyo with two relay medals and the title of Olympic finalist in the 50- and 100m freestyle.
Going from the shortest event to the longest event, the final of the men’s 1500m freestyle trotted out to the blocks for the last individual race in the pool at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Bobby Finke (Clearwater, Fla./Saint Petersburg Aquatics/University of Florida) entered the race in lane five, up against decorated distance swimmers Mykhalio Romanchuk (Ukraine), Florian Wellbrock (Germany) and Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) among others.
The race went out quick, but quickly saw the four aforementioned swimmers separate themselves from the pack. Finke bounced between third and fourth for each of the first 1,350 meters before showcasing his back-half speed. Going into the final 50 meters, Finke touched second at just a single hundredth behind Romanchuk. Then, like his swim in the 800m freestyle, Finke had a jaw-dropping last 50 meters, going 25.78 in the final split to win the race by a full second.
“Our whole team (at University of Florida) is always sprinting,” Finke said. “Especially a couple of our distance guys – Alfonso Mestre, Brennan Gravley, even Kieran (Smith) sometimes is hopping in with our group. We’re always going all out in that last rep, so without them, I don’t think I’d be able to have that finishing speed. Big thank you to those guys.”
“I came in trying to medal. I knew that the competition was really tough, those guys have been there for years now, especially (Gregorio) Paltrinieri. I’ve looked up to them ever since I first saw them swim. To be able to race with them is a big honor.”
The second-to-last race of the session was the women’s 4x100m medley relay, where the U.S. was represented by Regan Smith (Lakeville, Minn./Riptide), Lydia Jacoby (Seward, Alaska/Seward Tsunami Swim Club), Torri Huske (Arlington, Va./Arlington Aquatic Club) and Weitzeil.
The team was strong from the start, seeing a 58.05 backstroke split from Smith, which is tied for the 14th-fastest 100m backstroke in history. Jacoby and Huske posted strong breaststroke and butterfly splits of their own, going 1:05.03 and 56.16, respectively, to leave the U.S. in first by a quarter of a second heading into the freestyle leg. Weitzeil and Australia’s Cate Campbell battled in the final 100 meters, ultimately seeing Campbell steer Australia to gold in an Olympic-record time of 3:51.60 while the U.S. won silver in 3:51.73.
“I feel like Regan (Smith) did a great job at getting us the lead in the beginning, then Lydia (Jacoby) even more so and Abbey (Weitzeil) just brought it home like a champ,” Huske said. “I’m so thankful that I got this opportunity to swim with such amazing women. It was so much fun being with you guys.”
Rhyan White (Herriman, Utah/University of Alabama/WFFM), Lilly King (Evansville, Ind./Indiana Swim Club), Claire Curzan (Cary, N.C./TAC Titans) and Erika Brown (Modesto, Calif./Tennessee Aquatics) win medals as well via their prelim swim for the U.S. in the event.
The final event of the Tokyo morning was the men’s 4x100m medley relay, where the U.S. sent out Ryan Murphy (Jacksonville, Fla./California Aquatics/Bolles), Andrew, Dressel and Zach Apple (Trenton, Ohio/Mission Viejo Nadadores) to try to become the 10th-consecutive U.S. team to win Olympic gold in the event.
Murphy went out in 52.31 in his backstroke leg, handing the relay off to Andrew with the U.S. in first place. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty challenged Andrew in the breaststroke, but Andrew’s 58.49 split kept the U.S. in a medal position before Dressel took over with a 49.03 butterfly swim. The race came down to Apple versus Great Britain’s Duncan Scott to try and claim gold, but it was Apple’s 46.95, one of only two freestyle splits in the field under :47, to propel the U.S. to gold in a new world-record time of 3:26.78.
“To have two world-record holders and the fastest American breaststroker ever in front of me gives me a lot of confidence and kind of set the tone for that relay,” Apple said.
“I think we knew, given kind of the composite splits that we have put together just this week, that we could put together a special performance,” Murphy added. “That is all the hype we needed. We were really, really excited to go into that one – really excited to show what we could do and really proud of the result.”
The U.S. has now captured gold in every Olympic men’s 4x100 medley relay since 1984, and has won the event in 14 out of 15 Olympic Games competitions. The world-record time breaks an 11-year record that was previously held by the U.S. team of Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, Michael Phelps and David Walters at the 2009 World Championships.
Hunter Armstrong (Dover, Ohio/Ohio State University/CCS), Andrew Wilson (Bethesda, Md./Athens Bulldog Swim Club), Tom Shields (Huntington Beach, Calif./California Aquatics) and Blake Pieroni (Valparaiso, Ind./Sandpipers of Nevada/Indiana University) all earn medals as well via their prelim swim in the event.
The U.S. now looks to the open water 10K events to complete its medal count. The women’s event, featuring the U.S. duo of Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif./Mission Viejo Nadadores) and Ashley Twichell (Fayetteville, N.Y./TAC Titans), will be swum on August 4 (Japan Standard Time) while the men’s event, featuring Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./KSwim) will be swum on August 5.