U.S. Swimming Ends Paris Olympics on Top—Just Barely
After nine days of racing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. swim team managed to top both the medals count and gold tally in the pool. But the crucial golds didn’t come until the very last day.
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00:00I'm Alice Park, reporting from La Défense Arena on the last day of swim racing at the Paris Olympics, and it was a big one.
00:08The U.S. set two world records, the first in the 1,500-meter freestyle by Bobby Fink, and the second by the U.S. women in the 4x100 medley relay.
00:20It was a team that was made up of Regan Smith, Lily King, Gretchen Walsh, and Tori Husk, three of whom also won individual medals here in Paris.
00:31So how did the U.S. do overall? The team earned 28 medals total, eight of them gold, which did top the Australians, who earned 18 medals, seven of them gold.
00:44It's not as good a record as the U.S. has had at previous Olympics, but many of the swimmers commented that it's not that the U.S. is losing ground, more that the rest of the world is catching up,
00:57which means that in coming years, swim races might be tighter and more exciting, all of which is great for the sport of swimming.