Alex Walsh missed out on his gold medal hopes in the 200m individual medley.
First, she had to content herself with a bronze medal.
And so she had to settle for nothing.
After placing third in the pool, Walsh was disqualified for an illegal transition from backstroke to breaststroke, handing her place on the podium to Australia’s Kayleigh McKeown.
Canada’s Summer McIntosh won the gold medal in an Olympic record time of 2 minutes 6.56 seconds, while Westchester native Kate Douglas took silver in 2 minutes 6.92 seconds.
2024 Paris Olympics
Walsh topped all qualifiers in the event going into Friday’s semifinals and went on to win silver at the Tokyo Games.
She reportedly refused to speak to reporters in the mixed zone.
Ironically, McKeown was also disqualified for the same reason in the semi-final of the 200m individual medley at the 2023 World Championships, but Swimming Australia called this “unfair” at the time, claiming that Walsh had performed an illegal turn in the final of that event.
Walsh’s sister, Gretchen, also competed in Paris, winning gold in the mixed 4x100m relay.
It’s one of just six gold medals the U.S. has won in swimming, trailing Australia’s seven. Four more gold medals are set to be awarded on the final day of swimming competition on Sunday.
With the exception of Katie Ledecky, who won gold in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle, and Douglas, who won gold in the 200m breaststroke, the United States generally performed below expectations despite leading the medal count.
In particular, it was shocking that Caleb Dressel failed to win a medal in an individual event despite winning three gold medals in Tokyo.
