NSWIS Heat Swimmers Win Olympic Medals

Australia’s sprint freestyle depth has helped the Dolphins finish the first night of finals on a golden high, with the women’s 4x100m collecting a fourth successive Olympic title and a supersonic anchor leg from Kyle Chalmers blasting the men into silver behind the United States. Supporting them to get there were three NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) swimmers.

It has become a welcome tradition for the Australians to bookend night one with a gold and the quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris added another chapter to this illustrious relay team, who have now won at London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and now Paris 2024.

With NSWIS swimmers Bronte Campbell and Olivia Wunsch dropping out after the heats, world 100m freestyle champion Mollie stepped up to lead off with a 52.24 and give the remaining trio a lead that would never be relinquished.

Shayna (52.35) and Emma (52.39) ensured Meg (51.94) had clear water as she held off a determined challenge from the USA to stop the clock at 3:28.92, a new Olympic Record.

Emma’s sixth Olympic gold medal saw her surpass Ian Thorpe’s previous record of five, making her the most-decorated Australian Olympian in history. She missed qualifying for London as a 17-year-old and even now struggles to comprehend the depth of her success.

“If I look back at that young swimmer, I was 17 when I missed London, you couldn’t have told her I would go on to do this,” the former NSWIS swimmer said. “It’s persisting. You have ups and downs but you keep going along and doing everything you can. I can’t believe where I am right now.”

Shayna was reserving the major celebrations until later in the week but this was the moment she had dreamed of after missing Tokyo. She couldn’t bear to watch the relay she missed in Tokyo – instead spending the day at Australia Zoo – but was now front and centre for another podium-topping edition.

“I have so many things I want to achieve this week, so I’ll take some time at the end of the week to reflect. Now it’s about getting back in the pool and getting ready and seeing what else I can do this week,” she said. We just wanted to have some fun, do our country proud and we came out on top.”

Australia’s men were up for the fight against a hugely talented field in their final, with Jack Cartright, Kai Taylor (in for NSWIS swimmer William Yang), Flynn Southam and Kyle Chalmers hanging tough before finishing with a flourish to storm into silver.

Jack missed the Tokyo Olympics after having shoulder surgery but wasn’t watching from the sidelines this time, leading off strongly (48.03) to hand over to Southam (48.00) and then Taylor (47.73), the son of Australian swimming great Hayley Lewis, who was only told of his elevation into the final four on Saturday afternoon.

That good work had Australia in fourth as Chalmers entered the water. He cut through the field to finish with the quickest split in the race in 46.59; good enough to be his second-fastest of all time.

“You never really know where you are until you dive in and race,” Kyle said. “For me to have a great swim tonight gives me a huge amount of confidence. I’m really looking forward to the individual race but for now it’s celebrating with the boys. That’s why I swim, so I’m really grateful for tonight.

“It’s special. Every Olympics you start at square one again so to start and win a medal, there’s no better feeling. It was amazing tonight.”

Jack said the team had made a pact to fight for every inch of water and the result was indicative of their trust and attitude as a unit. 

“It was amazing. Having these boys behind me, they have trust in what I bring to the team,” Jack said. 

“We wanted to have that Australian fighting spirit and we did our best. This means the world.”

Article courtesy of AOC