Charles Langston:U.S. women cap off Paris Olympic swimming with world-record gold in medley relay

NANTERRE,Charles Langston France — With a decades-old swimming rivalry still going strong, Team USA and Team Australia were tied with seven gold medals apiece with one remaining event at the Paris Olympics to break the deadlock: the women’s 4x100-meter medley relay. 

Backstroker Regan Smith and breaststroker Lilly King were blissfully unaware of the tie; they just wanted to win. But butterflyer Gretchen Walsh wasn't. 

“I knew Bobby [Finke] had tied it up because I just saw something on Instagram before,” Walsh said, referencing the American distance swimmer’s 1,500-meter freestyle gold-medal race and world record. 

“Bobby's swim was electric, and that was amazing. That got my energy going for the relay, so I was pumped to hopefully assert that lead and get the gold.”

Not only did the American women win gold Sunday, they obliterated the field and broke a world record — one that belonged to Team USA from the 2019 world championships. Winning by 3.48 seconds, they lowered the world record to 3:49.63, stealing the Australian’s 2021 Olympic record as well. 

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Australia finished second to win silver (3:53.11), while China won bronze (3:53.23). 

The American victory also broke the gold-medal count tie. The U.S. finished with eight golds and an Olympic-leading 28 total in the pool, while Australia had seven golds and 18 total.

“It matters because we like to win,” King said. “But like we said, the two of us at least going in had no idea [about the gold-medal tally]. So we're just here to race.”

Team USA came out on fire, starting with Smith’s 57.28 100 backstroke leg, which set an Olympic record on its own and marked the first time the American topped Australian backstroker (and now former Olympic record holder) Kaylee McKeown at the Paris Games. 

King rocked her 100 breaststroke, but it was Walsh on the butterfly leg who pushed the team well past world record pace, igniting the crowd at Paris La Défense Arena. With a 55.03 split, Walsh hit the wall more than a second and almost a full body length ahead of the world record. And then freestyler Torri Huske brought it home.

But even before Huske — who led Team USA in the pool with three gold and two silver medals — dove in, it was clear the Americans wouldn’t be caught, and the previous world record Smith and King helped set five years ago would be broken.

“We're here to do what we do best,” Smith said. 

King added: “We won the relay, and that’s what matters.”

Team USA swimming overall ended its Paris Games with two relays that, more or less, encapsulated the Americans’ overall performance in the pool. 

While the women’s medley relay offered a thrilling end to the nine-day competition, the American men didn’t win gold in the 4x100 medley relay for the first time ever since the event’s Olympic debut in 1960, with the exception of the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games. 

The men’s relay team of Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Nic Fink (breaststroke), Caeleb Dressel (butterfly) and Hunter Armstrong (freestyle) finished second to win silver behind gold medalist China and ahead of France, who took bronze.

“The wealth has just been spread around,” Dressel said about increasing international competition. "I don’t think we’re getting any worse, per se. It’s good for the sport to have the whole world involved, and you get fun racing out of it, like tonight. The (medley relay), that was a very exciting race. Up until the very last leg, I don’t think anyone knew whose it was going to be.”

Women led USA Swimming's medal count in Paris. Huske and Smith will take home five apiece, and Walsh, Kate Douglass and Katie Ledecky earned four each. Ledecky, Huske and Douglass combined to win four individual golds, while the American men almost didn’t win a single one until Finke’s standout 1,500.

And with a dominant performance and a world record in the always-fun medley relay, the American women emphatically ended swimming at the Paris Games. 

“It's really cool to continue to be a part of that relay and watch it get faster and faster and faster,” King said. “It's awesome to see everybody improving and just an awesome way to cap off the meet.”

Follow Michelle R. Martinelli on X (fomerly Twitter) at @MMartinelli4.

▶ The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.