2024 Paris Olympics Day 7 Finals: Fun Facts

Australia had quite the night during day seven’s finals session, with Cam McEvoy winning the 50 freestyle, for the first individual Olympic medal of his career and Kaylee McKeown setting the new Olympic record in the women’s 200 backstroke, then later qualifying for the finals of the 200 IM later on in the evening. Leon Marchand wrapped up his last individual event in classic fashion, with a gold medal and an Olympic record to boot, only 0.06 seconds away from Ryan Lochte’s 200 IM world record. We’re nearing the end of the swimming program for this year’s games, with only one prelims session and two finals sessions left. Here are some fun facts about tonight’s session:

MEN’S 50 FREESTYLE

• Florent Manaudou won his fourth straight Olympic medal in the men’s 50 freestyle, having already won gold in 2012, silver in 2016 and 2021, and now adding a bronze to his collection. If Manaudou was a nation of his own, he’d have the second-most medals of every country in the world, tying with Brazil and 8 medals behind the United States. 
• Manaudou is now the only swimmer aside from Michael Phelps to win four Olympic medals in the same event. 
• Cam McEvoy and Ben Proud both won the first medals for their countries in the splash and dash, with Australia and Great Britain never seeing the podium in the 36-year history of the event. 
• Josh Liendo and Jordan Crooks became their countries’ first finalists in the men’s 50 freestyle, with Liendo placing fourth for Canada and Crooks placing eighth for the Cayman Islands.
• This is one of the tightest finals we’ve ever seen, with only 0.08 seconds separating third and eight place. It’s also the first final since London where we haven’t seen a tie in the finals.

WOMEN’S 200 BACKSTROKE

• Kaylee McKeown becomes the first woman to ever win the 100/200 backstroke double at two consecutive Olympics. Natalie Coughlin won the 100 backstroke in 2004 and 2008, Krisztina Egerszegi won the 100 backstroke in 1992 and the 200 backstroke in 1988, 1992 and 1996, and Kirsty Coventry won the 200 back in 2004 and 2008, but none of those women have won both distances two Games in a row.
• Each swimmer on the podium (McKeown, silver medalist Regan Smith, and bronze medalist Kylie Masse) swam faster than the time it took to win their respective medal in any previous Olympics, making this definitively the fastest podium in the history of the event. Both McKeown and Smith were faster this year than McKeown’s gold-medal performance from Tokyo.
• With McKeown’s Olympic record of 2:03.73, she adds another gold to Australia’s total medal count, joining Australia with the United States, Hungary, East Germany and Zimbabwe as countries holding two or more gold medals in the women’s 200 backstroke.

MEN’S 200 IM

• Leon Marchand broke his fourth Olympic record of the meet, swimming a 1:54.06 to become the first Frenchman to medal in the 200 IM. Before this race, his father Xavier Marchand held the honor of France’s highest-placing swimmer in the 200 IM, with his seventh place in Sydney 2000. 
• With Marchand’s new Olympic record, he takes down Michael Phelps’ other IM Olympic record, after claiming the 400 IM on Sunday. Phelps still has 3 records that have survived through Paris, with the men’s 200 freestyle and both the 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle relays. 
• Duncan Scott defended his silver medal from the Tokyo Games, swimming a time of 1:55.31, just 0.03 seconds off of his performance from the last Olympics.
• Wang Shun, swimming a 1:56.00, became the fastest bronze medalist in the history of the event. With this swim, Wang won his third medal in the men’s 200 IM, joining Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte as the only swimmers to win three or more medals in the event.

MEN’S 100 FLY

• Nyls Korstanje from the Netherlands set a new Dutch national record of 50.59 to place fourth going into tonight’s final, narrowing down his previous time of 50.78. If he can medal tomorrow night, he’ll win the third medal for the Netherlands in the pool, behind Caspar Corbeau and Tes Schouten’s bronze medal performances in the 200 breaststrokes.
• Korstanje, France’s Maxime Grousset, and Japan’s Naoki Mizunuma both have the chance to win their country’s first medals in the men’s 100 butterfly.
• Of all the swimmers in this final, no country that has previously won a gold medal is represented. Switzerland, Hungary, Canada, Australia, France, the Netherlands, and Japan have never been featured atop the podium in the men’s 100 butterfly.
• Kristof Milak and Noe Ponti have the chance to join a selective crowd of swimmers who have won multiple medals in this event, including Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Pablo Morales, Anthony Nesty, and Chad le Clos.

WOMEN’S 200 IM

• Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass will have the chance to defend their silver and bronze medals from Tokyo tomorrow night. If either swimmer medals, they’ll continue a 24-year streak of United States medals in this event. If they medal, they’ll join a group of four other swimmers to have medaled in two different games.
• Summer McIntosh and Abbey Wood have the chance to win their country’s first ever gold medals, with both Canada and Great Britain never having received a gold medal.
• McIntosh, Douglass, and Kaylee McKeown will all have the chance to win another individual gold medal at this meet with the 200 IM. McIntosh won the 400 IM and 200 butterfly, Douglass won the 200 breaststroke, and McKeown has won the 100 and 200 backstroke.