It took until the final race of the Olympic swimming competition, but the United States came home with the most gold medals and a new world record.
The U.S. team narrowly defeated Australia in the women’s 4 x 100-meter relay final, setting a world record time of 3 minutes 49.63 seconds to win their eighth gold medal, beating second-place Australia and third-place China.
Tori Haske, Lilly King, Regan Smith and Gretchen Walsh led the race throughout and never trailed anyone until the end.
The result gave the United States a crucial eighth gold medal, one behind Australia with six before Sunday.
Team USA also led the swimming team with 28 medals overall, beating Australia’s 18.
2024 Paris Olympics
A series of disappointments, including Caleb Dressel’s failure to win an individual medal, made the tournament appear to be heading in the wrong direction.
It was not the Americans who emerged as the swimming superstars, but France’s Leon Marchand on the men’s side and Canada’s Summer McIntosh on the women’s side.
But even though Australia pushed the U.S. team to the limit, the star power and depth of the Americans’ side proved enough to come out on top in the gold medal count in their pool.
Finally, at the last minute, the Americans were the best.
