SwimSwam Awards: 2024 Paris Olympic Games (Women’s Swimming Edition)

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
  • Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
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Nine glorious days of swimming at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are in the books. In the brief period after the Olympics, there is an afterglow, a processing, a fullness to the conclusion of really great stories, and an emptiness of not knowing what the new stories will be.

We take this debriefing to, among other things, review with the benefit of hindsight, who and what were the best of the spectacular meet we just watched.

While I think many of the men’s awards are fairly straight-forward, the women’s meet for me is full of big choices that are going to lead to some strong differing opinions. I’ll do my best to parse out why we chose the swimmers and swims we did for this, because even our staff didn’t agree on many of these.

Swimmer of the Meet – Summer McIntosh, Canada

This one was tough, but when we dug into the data, the winner was clear. McIntosh won 3 individual gold medals, 1 individual silver medal, set two Olympic Records, set two World Junior Records, and posted best times and Canadian Records in the 200 IM and 200 fly. Australian Kaylee McKeown won two individual golds, one individual bronze, won a relay silver, won a relay bronze, set two Olympic Records, and tied a personal best in the 100 back. One of her Olympic Records was broken by Regan Smith later in the meet.

The difference then is distilled into whether you value 1 individual gold and 1 individual silver over an individual bronze, an individual silver, and an individual bronze. In general, I think the former category is better, and McKeown not being the star performer of any of those relays closes any doubt.

McIntosh, only 17, is already swimming in her second Olympic Team and is the future of world swimming on the women’s side. She won a marquee event against a marquee field in the 200 IM, she dominated the 400 IM by almost six seconds, and while she didn’t swim any best times, at this meet specifically, that isn’t really a super great metric.

I think we also need to recognize how she ended the meet, with a 53.29 in the 100 free to anchor Canada’s women’s 400 medley relay to 4th. On screen, it didn’t look like a great swim, because she was racing a group of sprint studs. But that’s the world’s best 400 IM’er doing that. Her flat-start best is 53.90. I think Canada’s better relay would have had her on fly and MacNeil on the anchor leg, but Summer rose to the occasion she was given.

Her ability to swim the most grueling 200 and 400 meter events on the schedule and also contribute to relays is…dare I say…Phelpsian? Cannot wait for the next four years to watch this talent develop.

Honorable Mentions, Female Swimmer of the Meet:

• Australian Kaylee McKeown completed a historic double-double, winning the 100 back and 200 back at the 2nd straight Olympics. In a certain pool and a certain circumstance, her finals swim in the 100 back, which tied her best time, would have been a World Record. As it was, that 57.33 was two tenths shy. I think it’s fair now to declare McKeown the best female backstroker in history, surpassing the legendary Krisztina Egerszegi, and into a 50/50 debate with Roland Matthes as the best backstroker in history, period.
• Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom winning the 50 free was expected, but her win in the 100 free wasn’t expected – even by her. She didn’t have any relays to lean on for extra medals, but her two gold medals cement her place in swimming history.

Swim of the Meet –  U.S. Women’s 400 Medley Relay

The only World Record of the meet in a women’s meet, this American relay was sharp from start to finish. Regan Smith led off with a new Olympic Record and her best swim of the meet; Lilly King swam a full-relay-exchange better than her individual, Gretchen Walsh tied the fastest 100 fly split on a medley relay in history, and while Torri Huske wasn’t as good as she was in anchoring the mixed medley, she was still good enough to hold on for gold and the World Record.

This will go down as one of the most-complete medley relays we’ve ever had on the world stage. The front three legs are all the World Record holders in their respective events, and they swam like it in Paris.

Honorable Mentions, Swim of the Meet

• Summer McIntosh of Canada won what was the premier event of these Olympics, the women’s 200 IM, to solidify her status as the best female swimmer in Paris.
• Torri Huske of the United States split 51.88 on the anchor leg of the mixed medley relay, and the United States need every bit of that to pass China for gold and the World Record. For a swimmer who has been labeled a ‘relay liability’ over the last year after not having good performances in Fukuoka, she has become the American hero in a hurry.

Junior of the Meet – Summer McIntosh, Canada

The Swimmer of the Meet was a junior. How could this go any other way?

This was the best Olympic performance by a junior swimmer at the Olympics since at least Missy Franklin in 2012.

Honorable Mentions, Junior of the Meet

• Katie Grimes of the USA won silver in the 400 IM, and while she paid for it the next morning in the 1500 free, she was the only junior besides McIntosh to medal individually at the meet.
• There were surprisingly-few swimmers to even final at this meet, let alone medal, and Yu Yiting was among the closest to an individual medal. She won bronze as a prelims leg of the 400 free relay, another as the butterfly leg of the 400 medley relay in finals, and finished 4th individually in the 200 IM.
• Alex Shackell of the United States won silver and gold, respectively, as a prelims leg of the American women’s 800 free relay and 400 medley relay, and also finished 6th in the 200 fly. Her 2:06.46 in the semifinals would have placed her 4th in the final.
• Iona Anderson of Australia did her part in prelims of the women’s medley relay (silver) and mixed medley relay (bronze), performing consistently through all three swims. Her women’s medley leadoff split of 58.67 was within .15 seconds of her Australian Age Record for 18-year-olds.

Breakout Swimmer of the Meet – Anastasia Kirpichnikova, France

In a meet with precious-few best times and even fewer breakout performances, Kirpichnikova dropped 8 seconds of her best time, broke a French Record in front of a French crowd, and took silver in the women’s 1500 free.

Kirpichnikova previously represented Russia internationally, but after years living and training in France, she was approved to represent France. That gave the home country fans, who were big the whole meet, one more excuse to cheer for the tricolore.

Honorable Mentions, Breakout Swimmer of the Meet

• Mona McSharry of Ireland took bronze in the 100 breaststroke, making her country’s first Olympic medal in swimming since Mona McSharry in 1996 and just the second Olympic medalist in swimming in her country’s history. That launched off momentum that led to Daniel Wiffen winning gold in the 800 free later in the meet.
• American Paige Madden had a best time of 8:32.46 in the 800 free at the 2023 US Pro Championships. At the Olympics she swam 8:13.00 and grabbed a bronze medal and made a race of it against superstars Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus. Her whole season was a big breakout. She was a well-known quantity in the US as a multi-time NCAA Champion, but is now a player globally.

Clutch Relay Performer – Torri Huske, USA

Huske’s 52.0 split on the 400 free relay third leg and 51.88 anchor on the mixed medley relay are a huge level-up for her, and the kind of relay splits that the U.S. needs to put on the board more often if they ever hope to catch up to Australia in the sprints.

By comparison, Mollie O’Callaghan, who on any given day is probably the best 100 freestyler in the world (though she missed the medals in a super tight finish at the Olympics) had a best split of 51.83 at the Games. Huske is a very good 100 freestyler – but she is not as good as O’Callaghan. Except when she was.

That’s the 29th-best relay split in history by any swimmer from anywhere in the world, and the 10th-best by a non-Australian.

Honorable Mentions, Clutch Relay Performer

• Regan Smith of the USA swam the fastest 100 backstroke of the Olympics when leading off the American medley relay.
• Ariarne Titmus of Australia was upset by her teammate Mollie O’Callaghan in the individual 200 free, but in the 800 free relay, Titmus ripped off a big 1:52.95 split.
• American Gretchen Walsh split 55.03 fly on the women’s medley, 55.18 on the mixed medley, and 52.55 on a rolling start on the American 400 free relay. Her best flat-start is 53.13, so to do a 52.55 in this pool, early in the meet when the times were not impressive, is big.
• Meg Harris of Australia has a lifetime best of 52.52 on a flat-start in the 100 free, and she split 51.94 to anchor Australia’s 400 free relay in finals. With some of the old guard aging out of the system, Harris, 22, feels like the key cog to the continuity of Australian dominance in the 400 free relay.