2024 Paris Olympics Finals Day 2: Fun Facts

At the conclusion of the second day of finals, we saw first-time Olympic medalists, veterans continuing to establish their legacies, and even an Olympic record from the hometown hero Leon Marchand. With three finals and three semifinals in Sunday’s afternoon program, the swimming portion of the Olympics is fully underway. Looking at nations and numbers alike, here are some fun facts about the swimmers from today’s session. 

WOMEN’S 200 FREESTYLE

• Australia’s Ariarne Titmus has the chance to be the first double-gold medalist in the history of the 200 freestyle. As the world record holder in this event, Titmus comes into the final as the top seed, swimming in lane four with a 1:54.64.
• Both Titmus and Siobhan Haughey have a chance to win their second medals in the 200 free, hoping to join a select crowd of four swimmers who have won two medals in this event, including Federica Pelligrini and Claudia Poll. Haughey will be swimming in lane six as the fourth seed going into the final, with a 1:55.51.
• New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather, regardless of where she finishes in the final, will be New Zealand’s highest finisher in the history of this event. The previous highest place was from Rebecca Perrott in 1976.
• The Czech Republic stands a chance to win their first ever Olympic Swimming medal with Barbora Seemanova, who will be swimming out of lane seven. 
• This upcoming final will feature four of the all-time top 10 fastest performers before the Olympics, with Titmus (1), Mollie O’Callaghan (2), Haughey (7), and Yang Junxuan (10). 

MEN’S 200 FREESTYLE

• Duncan Scott, the only returning medalist from the Tokyo podium, will be back in the final with hopes of winning his second medal in the 200 freestyle. If he does so, he will be the first swimmer from Great Britain to win two medals in this event. 
• David Popovici and Danas Rapsys look to earn the first medals for their countries after multiple-year droughts. Popovici looks to win Romania’s first medal since 2004, and Rapsys looks to win Lithuania’s first since 2012. 
• Seven of the eight swimmers in this year’s final were within the top 20 fastest performers of all time before the Olympics: David Popovici (3), Lukas Märtens (7),  Duncan Scott (9), Matt Richards (10), Danas Rapsys (11), Katsuhiro Matsumoto (15), and Maximilian Giuliani (20). 

WOMEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE

• Regardless of where she finishes in the final (barring a DQ), Eneli Jefimova will be Estonia’s highest finisher in the country’s history for the 100 breast. Their previous best performance came from Jefimova in 2021, where she finished 16th. If she wins a medal, she will win Estonia’s first ever medal in the sport. 
• If she wins a medal, Ireland’s Mona McSharry will be the country’s first medalist since 1996. McSharry will be in lane five in tomorrow’s final.  
• Monday’s final will feature six pre-Olympics top-20 performers, Lilly King (1), Tang Qianting (4), Tatjana Smith (6), Benedetta Pilato (16), and Angharad Evans (20).

MEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE

• Nicolo Martinenghi is the first Italian to win this event at the Olympics since Domencio Fioravanti in Sydney 2000.
• With his silver medal swim, Adam Peaty became the first swimmer to win three medals in the 100 breaststroke. Martinenghi joined an exclusive crowd, including Kosuke Kitajima and Cameron van der Burgh, to win two medals in this event. 
• The winning time of 59.03 was the slowest winning time we’ve seen at an Olympic Games since 2004, despite some of the fastest swimmers of all time being in the final. 59.03 would’ve placed eighth at the 2021 games. 
• Adam Peaty (1), Qin Haiyang (2), Arno Kamminga (3), Nicolo Martinenghi (5), Nic Fink (7), and Lukas Matzerath (20) are all within the top-20 performers of all time. 

WOMEN’S 100 BUTTERFLY

• Despite all three of the women’s 100 fly podium from Paris making this year’s final (Maggie MacNeil, Zhang Yufei, Emma McKeon) only Zhang returned to the podium. 
• This is the first time since 1988 that two swimmers from the same country have finished 1-2 in the women’s 100 fly, with Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh from the United States this year, and Kristin Otto and Brite Weigang from East Germany in 1988. 
• This final featured seven of the eight fastest performers of all time before the Olympics, with Gretchen Walsh (1), Torri Huske (3), Maggie MacNeil (4), Zhang Yufei (5), Emma McKeon (7), Angelina Köhler (11), and Louise Hansson (14).

MEN’S 400 IM

• Leon Marchand set the widest margin of victory in the 400 IM at the olympics over second place finisher Tomoyuki Matsushita, winning the event by 5.67 seconds. 
• Leon Marchand remains as the only swimmer to ever swim a 4:02 (or a 4:04) in this event, and he adds an Olympic record-setting 4:02.95 to notch the second fastest performance of all-time. 
• Max Litchfield has placed fourth in this event at each of the past 3 Olympic Games, with a 4:11.62 in Rio, a 4:10.59 in Tokyo, and now a 4:08.85 in Paris. This 4:08.85 is a British national record.
• The following swimmers were all in the top 20 performers before the Olympics: Leon Marchand (1), Daiya Seto (6), Carson Foster (8), Lewis Clareburt (12), Max Litchfield (15), and Alberto Razzetti (19)