Article by Jackson Barrett, courtesy of The West Australian.
Australia has obliterated the field and smashed an Olympic record to win gold in a stunning 4x200m freestyle relay victory that etches Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan into swimming history.
A team of O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and swimming legend Titmus landed another blow on the United States in the pool and claimed Australia’s eighth gold medal of the Paris Olympics.
The USA finished second and China, who gave Australia the stiffest competition in the early legs, claimed bronze.
Throssell claimed Western Australia’s first medal of these Olympics, while O’Callaghan is now a five-time gold medallist, drawing her level with pool champion Ian Thorpe at just 20 years old.
Titmus now has four gold medals and two at these Olympics.
It also means Shayna Jack is now a gold medallist for the first time, five years after a doping ban rubbed her out of the Tokyo Games.
Jack and Jamie Perkins both swam in the heats.
Australia’s bronze medal in the same event in Tokyo was one of the shocks of the meet.
For a renowned back-end swimmer, Australia’s newest golden girl O’Callaghan made a lightning start and led her entire leg, swimming a 1.53:52 that left her just above her own world record time.
Pallister, who pulled out of the 1500m freestyle with this race in mind as she battled COVID earlier in the meet, held onto Australia’s lead, while Throssell helped see off a push from legendary American Katie Ledecky.
The world record line slipped away from Throssell as China and Ledecky put her under immense pressure and threatened to snatch a late lead in the third leg.
Australia finished with a time of 7:38.0 after Titmus steadied the cause and stretched away from Erin Gemmell.
Pallister, the daughter of Olympian Janelle Elford (nee Pallister), was forced into isolation as the Australian Olympic Committee desperately fought off the risk of an outbreak.
But she said she was happy to wait it out and rule out any chance of her teammates also falling ill.
“I don’t know what to say,” Pallister said as emotions spilled over on pool deck.
“That isolation room sucked, but I am stoked I am negative, I would hate to put any of these girls in a position where I ruined the rest of their meet, so I think the medical staff at the AOC did such an incredible job looking after me and all the other athletes on the Australian team that have had COVID.
“These girls are so incredible, I didn’t think I would be a part of this relay at the start of the week so to be here standing with them, I don’t think I could ask for anything more from my Olympic experience.”
The team were spotted celebrating with Tasmanian-born Queen Mary of Denmark and swimming royalty Dawn Fraser, who is Pallister’s godmother.
While heat swimmers are given medals, they do not join the four finals swimmers on the podium. On a victory lap around a packed La Defense Arena, O’Callaghan draped her medal around the neck of close friend Perkins.
“It means the world to me the opportunity to swim alongside these girls and have the two girls that swum the heats, it means absolutely the world to me,” O’Callaghan said.
“I dreamed of this moment ever since Tokyo, striving to get on this team and doing whatever I can.
“Jamie is my best friend at training, she is there for me, she has been my roommate this whole meet.
“She has trained her ass off to get here and you know, she’s gone through a back injury, she has done everything possible and I think that gold medal means a lot for me to give to her because it represents what she’s been through and she’s well deserving of it.”
Titmus joked she had O’Callaghan offering some “stern words” from behind the blocks as she took the plunge towards Olympic glory.
“I was really disappointed with how I swum in Tokyo, I felt like I personally let the team down, so this was a bit of a personal vendetta for me to come back and really play my role for the team but also to do it for our country,” she said.
“This was a gold medal really we knew could be ours … (I was) really quite emotional out there.”
Ledecky’s silver medal means she is now the American with the most Olympic medals in history.
The medal leaves Australia level on the medal tally with hosts France and just one shy of the US.
