Olympic Swimming recap: Day 8

Day 8 brought the last day of semi-finals and multiple enthralling finals, including the second rendition of the mixed relays at the Olympics. It set up an exciting last day tomorrow, especially for the United States-Australia rivalry.

Finals

Men’s 100m Butterfly

1. Kristóf Milák- Hungary 49.90

2. Josh Liendo- Canada 49.99

3. Ilya Kharun- Canada 50.45

Milák’s win gave him his first gold medal of the meet and his first Olympic gold in this event after close seconds in this event in Tokyo and the 200m butterfly earlier this week.

After trailing at the turn, he used his strong back half to come back and just out-touch Liendo whose second-place finish gave him his first Olympic medal.

Women’s 200m IM

1. Summer McIntosh- Canada 2:06.56 OR

2. Kate Douglass- United States 2:06.92

3. Kaylee McKeown- Australia 2:08.08

McIntosh’s win gave her the sweep of the IMs, making it eight straight Olympics that the women’s 200m and 400m IM have been won by the same person. Her strong last 50 was enough to hold off Douglass and win her third gold medal of the meet.

American Alex Walsh would have won the bronze medal but was disqualified for an illegal turn from backstroke to breaststroke.

Women's 800m Freestyle

1. Katie Ledecky- United States 8:11.04

2. Ariarne Titmus- Australia 8:12.29

3. Paige Madden- United States 8:13.00

Ledecky’s reign over the 800m freestyle continued as she held off rival Titmus to win her fourth straight Olympic gold medal. Ledecky has never lost this event at a major international competition in 13 years.

Ledecky became the first female swimmer to win the same event at four Olympics and joined Vincent Hancock, Carl Lewis, Al Oerter and Michael Phelps as the only Americans to win the same event at four straight Olympics, as well as Paul Elvstrøm of Denmark and Mijaín López as the only athletes to win four in a row.

Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay

1. United States 3:37.43 WR

2. China 3:37.55

3. Australia 3:38.76

In the event that involves the most strategy and gets the most chaotic, the United States and China got their strategies right and led throughout the race.

The two teams were neck and neck, but the American team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske edged out the Chinese for the gold medal.

Semi-finals

Women’s 50m Freestyle

Finalists

1. Sarah Sjöström- Sweden

2. Gretchen Walsh- United States

3. Katarzyna Wasick- Poland

4. Zhang Yufei- China

5. Shayna Jack- Australia

6. Meg Harris- Australia

7. Wu Qingfeng- China

8. Neža Klančar- Slovenia

As the medal table stands now, the United States has the most medals, but Australia leads the gold medal count 7-6.

Both teams will have multiple opportunities to win multiple medals on the last day, which should bring as intense and exciting a last day of swimming as the Olympics has had.

Jacob Rudy is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jar7371@psu.edu.