Getty Image / Maddie Meyer
Coming into the swim meet at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, the big question was whether Team USA could edge out Team Australia in terms of gold medals, a crown that the USA takes great pride in keeping. Projections shown on NBC early in the week showed the Australians projected to finish with more gold medals than the Americans.
As the meet went on, it looked like Australia would indeed win the most gold medals in the pool at La Defense Arena. But, the USA rallied on the final day of swimming in Paris to take the crown once again.
It was not a great meet when considering Team USA’s lofty standards of success. Team USA won sixteen golds in the pool at London 2012 and Rio 2016, and eleven in Tokyo. But, after four days of competition, they only had two gold medals. Heading into Saturday, with just two days left in the meet, they only had four golds. If things went poorly, it could’ve been a complete embarrassment in the pool for Team USA Swimming.
But, they came on strong. Katie Ledecky won her fourth straight 800m Freestyle title and Team USA won the Mixed 4x100m Relay to put them right behind the Australians, who had 7 golds heading into Sunday.
@nbcolympics BACK-TO-BACK BOBBY. 🇺🇸🥇Bobby Finke successfully defends gold and sets a new WORLD RECORD in the men’s 1500m free! #ParisOlympics #olympics #swim #swimmer #swimming
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
That’s rough for the Australians, as they actually underachieved NBC’s gold medal projections by a few, while the USA actually exceeded theirs by one.
That’s not to say this was an ideal Olympics in the pool for Team USA by any stretch of the imagination. The women had a good meet, all things considered, though they probably wish they could’ve turned some more silvers into golds.
But, the men did not have a good meet. Only Bobby Finke, in the final individual race of the competition, won a gold medal for the USA in an individual race. In today’s Men’s 4x100M Medley Relay, they were beaten by China on the final leg in a race they’d never lost at the Olympics.
That being said, despite leaving a lot of gold medals on the table, Team USA Swimming still came out on top, and rivals Australia will have four long years to think about that.