NANTERRE, France — The U.S. women closed out their Olympic Games emphatically with a gold medal and a new world record in the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday night.
Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske finished in 3:49.63 and beat the rest of the field by more than three seconds.
Australia (3:53.11) took silver and China (3:53.23) earned bronze.
TEAM USA CLOSES IT OUT WITH A GOLD. 🥇👏
In the final swim of the #ParisOlympics, the United States DOMINATES the women’s 4x100m medley relay! pic.twitter.com/ISAvsNwyef
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024
Their gold was the eighth for Team USA, which pushed the Americans past the Australians, who tallied seven in the pool. The U.S. has won more swimming gold medals than its peers in every Olympics since 1988.
Earlier Sunday, the U.S. men earned silver in the men’s medley relay — the first time in the history of the event that the Americans didn’t win it (excluding the boycotted 1980 Games). It was a disappointing meet overall for the American men; distance swimmer Bobby Finke was the only man to win an individual event. Caeleb Dressel didn’t win any individual medals, despite entering the Games as the reigning Olympic champion in three individual events.
This story will be updated.
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(Photo: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)