The ladies competing in the Paris Olympics have provided a lot of excitement for the crowd at the Paris La Defense Arena, as well as those watching from all over the world. Team USA delivered an outstanding effort in the 4×100-meter women’s freestyle relay, earning the silver medal by keeping China behind. However, all eyes were on Team Australia, who were utterly dominant over the rest.
The entire race was quite competitive. From the moment the whistle blew, Great Britain’s Anna Hopkin set an outstanding pace, only to fade away a few meters later.
On the opening lap, Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan took first place, giving her teammate Shayna Jack a fantastic start. From this point forward, Team Australia never looked back, thoroughly dominating the race with each lap, with Meg Harris winning the Olympic gold medal as the relay squad completed in 3:28.92, setting a new Olympic record in the category.
Aside from the Aussies’ dominance, Team USA performed an outstanding job of fending off China to win the silver medal and set an American record with a time of 3:30.20, thanks to the terrific efforts by Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, and Simone Manuel.
Some of the Team USA competitors who raced in the 4×100-meter freestyle relays also made their mark in the 100-meter butterfly, setting new standards at the Paris Olympics with their impressive times.
Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske Keeps Team USA’s Hopes High
It is not uncommon for American fans to be spoiled by their athletes’ outstanding performances, and Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske provided the same in this year’s women’s 100-meter butterfly semifinals.
Walsh struggled in the last meters of the event’s first heat, costing her first place; however, when she arrived in the semi-finals, she realized the importance of the situation.
Maintaining her world record status, the athlete led the entire race, finishing 1.18 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Angelina Koehler, and qualifying for the final with an Olympic record time of 55.38 seconds.
Torri Huske put on a strong display of swimming in the next heat, and although she was not as quick as her teammate in the previous heat, she finished first with a 56-second mark and advanced to the finals.
