On Sunday (first), Australia’s Emma McKeown became the first swimmer to win seven medals in a single Olympics, with victories in the 50m freestyle and the women’s 4×100 medley relay. Tokyo Games.
American Caleb Dressel asserted his dominance in men’s swimming, taking gold in the 50m freestyle to join the accomplishments of the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly and win the fifth medal in the Games with the US team’s victory in the men’s medley relay. He also won the gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
There was more gold for the US as Robert Fink finally showed his recovery to win the 1500m freestyle, after also taking the gold in the 800m.
The United States finished an exciting swimming competition in Tokyo with 11 gold medals, five fewer than in Rio and London.
Australia won nine medals, the highest number of gold medals at the Games, and the United Kingdom exited with four golds as part of a record eight medals in total.
McKeown, who snatched four gold medals in Tokyo, swam the butterfly in the Australian relay, which was with Kate Campbell in the final stage, leaving the Americans a silver.
McKeown joined Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, and Matt Biondi, as the only swimmers to win seven medals at the Games. Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya, in 1952, is the only woman to have won seven wins in any other sport.
Phelps holds the record for swimming with eight medals, won in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing four years later.
“I see the athletes who’ve gone before me and I’m really impressed with what they’ve done, but I haven’t looked at the medal count stats,” McKeown said. “It’s an honor because I know I worked hard for this.”
Copyright © Thomson Reuters.
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