NANTERRE: The final night of swimming at the Paris Olympics stirred a wide range of emotions for an American team that no longer rules the world.
A world record from Bobby Finke.
Elation. A historic loss that reignited gripes about Chinese doping. Stunning.
Finally, another world record for the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team to edge out rival Australia for the top spot in the gold-medal table. Whew!
“Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,” said Lilly King of the winning relay team, who joined her teammates in strolling around the deck holding up the stars and stripes as the crowd filed out La Defense Arena.
Finke set his new standard in the 1,500 freestyle before the American women closed a thrilling nine days of swimming in style.
The U.S. finished with eight gold medals to top Australia, which won seven events. Still, it was the lowest victory total for the Americans since the 1988 Seoul Games, when they were beaten by a doping-tainted East German program.
They finished with 28 medals overall, two shy of their total three years ago in Tokyo. In all, 13 countries won at least one gold — French star Léon Marchand was essentially a country unto himself — and 19 teams made the medal podium.
After a bevy of disappointing performances by some of its biggest names, the U.S. team was very much aware of its gold-medal battle with the Aussies.
“I knew Bobby had tied it up,” King said. “Bobby’s swim was electric. That was amazing. He definitely got my energy going for the relay. I was pumped to hopefully assert that lead and get the gold.”
That’s just what she did.
King, whose third Olympics will be her last, made up for a disappointing showing in her individual events by powering to the lead on the breaststroke segment.
Then it was Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, two of the biggest U.S. stars at these games, bringing it home in 3 minutes, 49.63 seconds to break the record of 3:50.40 set by the U.S. at the 2019 world championships.
Regan Smith led off in the backstroke leg, earning a relay gold for the second night in a row after starting her Olympic career with five silvers and a bronze.
Australia, the defending Olympic champion, took the silver this time in 3:53.11. The bronze went to China in 3:53.23.
Four world records were set during the meet, three of them by the U.S.
