[ Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher/USA Today Sports ]
Grind of Tokyo Olympics Produces Less Gold, but Still Grand Medal Haul for Team USA BY DAVID RIEDER
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n day one in Tokyo, the United States was off to an unbelievably hot start at the Olympic Games. With every bounce going the Americans' way, a six-medal effort on day one was more than reasonably expected. There had been concerns prior to the meet about how the Americans would perform. Would they struggle to win 25 medals, even 20? And after night one, had all concerns suddenly been absolved? Not exactly. Throughout the eight days of swimming finals at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, the Americans produced special moments and podium finishes aplenty, but the team struggled to gain and sustain momentum. Day two began with a pair of fourth-place finishes for Torri Huske in the women’s 100 butterfly (by one hundredth) and Michael Andrew in the men’s 100 breaststroke, neither one poor swims but both the kind of disappointing results that can drain a team. On day three, three straight finals included Americans who held the world record in their respective events at the start of June. Two of those swimmers still hold those records – and none of them won gold. Regan Smith, Ryan Murphy and Lilly King ended up with individual bronze medals that night, although 17-year-old Alaska native Lydia Jacoby pulled a stunner that landed her on top of the podium and produced the first rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in honor of a female swimmer. A day later, Katie Ledecky and Erica Sullivan’s gold-silver 8
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finish in the first-ever women’s 1500 freestyle final was followed by the first-ever Olympic swimming relay where the American quartet missed the podium. And on it went, the pendulum swining back and forth all the way through to Sunday morning in Tokyo, when Caeleb Dressel’s historic third individual gold, Bobby Finke’s second out-of-nowhere gold medal in as many distance finals and a world-record setting effort in the men’s 400 medley relay brought the meet to a close on a high for the U.S. men, while the American women received one final gut-punch when Australia’s Cate Campbell touched out Abbey Weitzeil for gold in the women’s 400 medley relay. Weitzeil did not swim poorly — her 52.49 split was the fastest of her career. Neither did Smith, Jacoby or Huske on the first three legs. The silver medal is one to cherish, and when these swimmers look back, they undoubtedly will. But in the moment, Weitzeil looked absolutely crushed by the result. She lingered in the pool before she climbed out and slumped her head on Smith’s shoulder, the 19-year-old left to offer uplifting words to her teammate. In the one remaining event on the program, the U.S. men captured first place in the men’s 400 medley relay, recording a new world record in the process. The race earned Dressel his fifth gold medal of the week and several new spots in swimming’s history books. But in the minutes after the race
