2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
9 superb days of swimming on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games are within the books. Within the transient interval after the Olympics, there may be an afterglow, a processing, a fullness to the conclusion of actually nice tales, and an vacancy of not understanding what the brand new tales might be.
We take this debriefing to, amongst different issues, overview with the good thing about hindsight, who and what have been the most effective of the spectacular meet we simply watched.
Whereas I feel lots of the males’s awards are pretty straight-forward, the ladies’s meet for me is stuffed with massive decisions which might be going to result in some robust differing opinions. I’ll do my finest to parse out why we selected the swimmers and swims we did for this, as a result of even our workers didn’t agree on many of those.
Swimmer of the Meet – Summer time McIntosh, Canada
This one was robust, however after we dug into the information, the winner was clear. McIntosh received 3 particular person gold medals, 1 particular person silver medal, set two Olympic Information, set two World Junior Information, and posted finest occasions and Canadian Information within the 200 IM and 200 fly. Australian Kaylee McKeown received two particular person golds, one particular person silver, received a relay silver, received a relay bronze, set two Olympic Information, and tied a private finest within the 100 again. One in all her Olympic Information was damaged by Regan Smith later within the meet.
The distinction then is distilled into whether or not you worth 1 particular person gold and 1 particular person silver over a person bronze, a person silver, and a person bronze. Normally, I feel the previous class is best, and McKeown not being the star performer of any of these relays closes any doubt.
McIntosh, solely 17, is already swimming in her second Olympic Crew and is the way forward for world swimming on the ladies’s facet. She received a marquee occasion towards a marquee subject within the 200 IM, she dominated the 400 IM by virtually six seconds, and whereas she didn’t swim any finest occasions, at this meet particularly, that isn’t actually an excellent nice metric.
I feel we additionally want to acknowledge how she ended the meet, with a 53.29 within the 100 free to anchor Canada’s girls’s 400 medley relay to 4th. On display screen, it didn’t appear to be a terrific swim, as a result of she was racing a bunch of dash studs. However that’s the world’s finest 400 IM’er doing that. Her flat-start finest is 53.90. I feel Canada’s higher relay would have had her on fly and MacNeil on the anchor leg, however Summer time rose to the event she was given.
Her potential to swim probably the most grueling 200 and 400 meter occasions on the schedule and in addition contribute to relays is…dare I say…Phelpsian? Can not anticipate the subsequent 4 years to look at this expertise develop.
Honorable Mentions, Feminine Swimmer of the Meet:
- Australian Kaylee McKeown accomplished a historic double-double, profitable the 100 again and 200 again on the 2nd straight Olympics. In a sure pool and a sure circumstance, her finals swim within the 100 again, which tied her finest time, would have been a World File. Because it was, that 57.33 was two tenths shy. I feel it’s honest now to declare McKeown the most effective feminine backstroker in historical past, surpassing the legendary Krisztina Egerszegi, and right into a 50/50 debate with Roland Matthes as the most effective backstroker in historical past, interval.
- Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom profitable the 50 free was anticipated, however her win within the 100 free wasn’t anticipated – even by her. She didn’t have any relays to lean on for further medals, however her two gold medals cement her place in swimming historical past.
Swim of the Meet – U.S. Ladies’s 400 Medley Relay
The one World File of the meet in a girls’s meet, this American relay was sharp from begin to end. Regan Smith led off with a brand new American File and her finest swim of the meet; Lilly King swam a full-relay-exchange higher than her particular person, Gretchen Walsh tied the quickest 100 fly break up on a medley relay in historical past, and whereas Torri Huske wasn’t nearly as good as she was in anchoring the blended medley, she was nonetheless adequate to carry on for gold and the World File.
This may go down as one of many most-complete medley relays we’ve ever had on the world stage. The entrance three legs are all of the World File holders of their respective occasions, they usually swam prefer it in Paris.
Honorable Mentions, Swim of the Meet
- Summer time McIntosh of Canada received what was the premier occasion of those Olympics, the ladies’s 200 IM, to solidify her standing as the most effective feminine swimmer in Paris.
- Torri Huske of the US break up 51.88 on the anchor leg of the blended medley relay, and the US want each little bit of that to cross China for gold and the World File. For a swimmer who has been labeled a ‘relay legal responsibility’ during the last yr after not having good performances in Fukuoka, she has grow to be the American hero in a rush.
Junior of the Meet – Summer time McIntosh, Canada
The Swimmer of the Meet was a junior. How might this go another method?
This was the most effective Olympic efficiency by a junior swimmer on the Olympics since no less than Missy Franklin in 2012.
Honorable Mentions, Junior of the Meet
- Katie Grimes of the USA received silver within the 400 IM, and whereas she paid for it the subsequent morning within the 1500 free, she was the one junior apart from McIntosh to medal individually on the meet.
- There have been surprisingly-few swimmers to even remaining at this meet, not to mention medal, and Yu Yiting was among the many closest to a person medal. She received bronze as a prelims leg of the 400 free relay, one other because the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay in finals, and completed 4th individually within the 200 IM.
- Alex Shackell of the US received silver and gold, respectively, as a prelims leg of the American girls’s 800 free relay and 400 medley relay, and in addition completed sixth within the 200 fly. Her 2:06.46 within the semifinals would have positioned her 4th within the remaining.
- Iona Anderson of Australia did her half in prelims of the ladies’s medley relay (silver) and blended medley relay (bronze), performing persistently by way of all three swims. Her girls’s medley leadoff break up of 58.67 was inside .15 seconds of her Australian Age File for 18-year-olds.
In a meet with precious-few finest occasions and even fewer breakout performances, Kirpichnikova dropped 8 seconds of her finest time, broke a French File in entrance of a French crowd, and took silver within the girls’s 1500 free.
Kirpichnikova beforehand represented Russia internationally, however after years residing and coaching in France, she was permitted to characterize France. That gave the house nation followers, who have been massive the entire meet, yet one more excuse to cheer for the tricolore.
Honorable Mentions, Breakout Swimmer of the Meet
- Mona McSharry of Eire took bronze within the 100 breaststroke, making her nation’s first Olympic medal in swimming since Mona McSharry in 1996 and simply the second Olympic medalist in swimming in her nation’s historical past. That launched off momentum that led to Daniel Wiffen profitable gold within the 800 free later within the meet.
- American Paige Madden had a finest time of 8:32.46 within the 800 free on the 2023 US Professional Championships. On the Olympics she swam 8:13.00 and grabbed a bronze medal and made a race of it towards superstars Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus. Her complete season was an enormous breakout. She was a widely known amount within the US as a multi-time NCAA Champion, however is now a participant globally.
Clutch Relay Performer – Torri Huske, USA
Huske’s 52.0 break up on the 400 free relay third leg and 51.88 anchor on the blended medley relay are an enormous level-up for her, and the sort of relay splits that the U.S. must placed on the board extra usually in the event that they ever hope to catch as much as Australia within the sprints.
By comparability, Mollie O’Callaghan, who on any given day might be the most effective 100 freestyler on the earth (although she missed the medals in an excellent tight end on the Olympics) had a finest break up of 51.83 on the Video games. Huske is an excellent 100 freestyler – however she is inferior to O’Callaghan. Besides when she was.
That’s the Twenty ninth-best relay break up in historical past by any swimmer from wherever on the earth, and the Tenth-best by a non-Australian.
Honorable Mentions, Clutch Relay Performer
- Regan Smith of the USA swam the quickest 100 backstroke of the Olympics when main off the American medley relay.
- Ariarne Titmus of Australia was upset by her teammate Mollie O’Callaghan within the particular person 200 free, however within the 800 free relay, Titmus ripped off an enormous 1:52.95 break up.
- American Gretchen Walsh break up 55.03 fly on the ladies’s medley, 55.18 on the blended medley, and 52.55 on a rolling begin on the American 400 free relay. Her finest flat-start is 53.13, so to do a 52.55 on this pool, early within the meet when the occasions weren’t spectacular, is massive.
- Meg Harris of Australia has a lifetime better of 52.52 on a flat-start within the 100 free, and he or she break up 51.94 to anchor Australia’s 400 free relay in finals. With among the previous guard growing old out of the system, Harris, 22, seems like the important thing cog to the continuity of Australian dominance within the 400 free relay.
