2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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The final night of pool swimming competition wrapped up in Tokyo with the US and Australia sweeping the gold medals for the session.
American Caeleb Dressel was responsible for two of those gold medals, winning the men’s 50 freestyle and teaming up with Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, and Zach Apple to claim the top spot in the 4×100 medley relay.
Dressel’s Florida teammate Bobby Finke also claimed gold, swimming to victory in the men’s 1500 freestyle, his second win of the meet.
The US women also won a silver medal on the women’s 4×100 medley relay to round out the country’s medal total with 30. Although the US did not win as many medals as they did in Rio, the team still led the swimming medal count by 10 medals over Australia.
Australia saw both of its victories on the women’s side as Emma McKeon won the women’s 50 freestyle in an Olympic record time, and the women’s 4×100 medley relay finished first ahead of the US. For McKeon, her victories give her a total of 7 medals for the Tokyo Olympics, tying her for the most medals ever won by a woman at an Olympics in history.
The aforementioned Dressel led all men at the competition with a total of 5 medals, all of which were gold.
Denmark earned its first medal of the competition via Pernille Blume’s 3rd place finish in the 50 freestyle, as did Sweden with Sara Sjostrom’s second place finish.
Day 8 Medal Table:
| Nation | Total Medals | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| USA | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 |
| Australia | 20 | 9 | 3 | 8 |
| Great Britain | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| People’s Republic of China | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| ROC | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Japan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Canada | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| South Africa | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Hungary | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Italy | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Hong Kong, China | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sweden | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Germany | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Brazil | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Finland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2016 Day 8 Medal Table:
| Nation | Total Medals | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| United States | 33 | 16 | 8 | 9 |
| Australia | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Hungary | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Japan | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Great Britain | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| China | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Canada | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Sweden | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Italy | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Denmark | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Spain | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Kazakhstan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| South Africa | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Russia | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| France | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Belgium | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Belarus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The US and Australia did really well but GB did exceptionally well compared to previous games.
Their equal highest placing on the medal tally with their biggest haul in a few decades. They’ve been showing promise for many years and made it happen here.
Australia had their most successful Games of all time and tripled their golds from Rio. I would say that’s exceptionally well.
But of course GB did amazing as well. I would say Aus and GB are the two breakout countries of this Games.
I was surprised that despite some lower medal counts, Australia still featured either second or in the top 10 of the swimming medal count in most of the recent Olympics. They are very consistent and do well.
The same can’t be said of GB though where it is very rare they finish in the top 10 or win a gold. Well done to them.
Australia’s medal haul was most impressive to come THIS close to overtaking the US on gold medal count. So close!
If not for massive choke job by Australian coaches in 4x200m W relay and Dressel just edging Chalmers, Australia could of easily topped gold medal count. No coincidence Australia has their best swimming performance at an Olympics by moving their trials closer to the Olympics.
The coaches may have made a mistake, but the coaches didn’t ‘choke’….the swimmers didn’t ‘choke’…..select a better word. Even better, give it a rest!
I love how this article ranks by total medals but the McKeon/Dressel article ranks by golds.
Not subtle SwimSwam. Choose one metric and stick to it rather than change it to suit your narrative
This article is actually ranked by golds first, but they put the total medals on the left. But yes, you’re right, they put total medals on the right in the article where an Aussie had the most total medals.
Australia had a very good Olympics compared to 2012 and 2016. The USA is no longer as dominant but it’s still comfortably the world’s top swimming nation. The number of finals appearances proves it more decisively than the medals table. As for person who suggested that Australia should be the number one nation because it’s supposedly the biggest sport in the country and has more competitive swimmers than the USA ……that person must be living in la la land.
Look, if you took away all the other countries and just had Australia and USA head to head, two best swimmers in each event, the USA absolutely kills it, and they would win against any other country in a head to head match up as well. There is no denying that.
But when other countries are factored in, which is how the Olympics works, it’s not inconceivable that another country could top the medal table. Hell, if Kyle had been 0.07 faster we would have had equal golds. If the two new distance events weren’t added we would have equal gold and would only be behind by 7 silver/bronze.
I agree that’s USA’s depth can’t be fully understood in the… Read more »
Surely you can’t have it both ways, either you use trials results/ranking in all events (for ex. Torry Huske time in US trials in 100 Fly was better then current Aus record) or you use only Olympics results.
That settles it then.
If Emma McKeon was a country, she would be 14th on the overall Olympic medal tally right now. Dressel would be 9th 😳
Not really. In this case only individual medals count.
21 countries taking home a medal compared to 18 in Rio. Is 21 a record for the Olympics?
What is peoples opinion on Australias super tough qualifying standards, and resultant ‘small’ team? Coupled with the late trials, seems to have worked very well.
I am happy that we use tough standards, but I also think there should be a little leeway. Dekkers made the FINA A cut in the qualifying period (just not at trials) and her PB would have been fifth in the 200 fly final. There’s a solid chance she could have swam a new PB and been in medal contention as well.
However, it seems like the smaller team has really added some camaraderie which makes a difference.
Re the late trials, I am 100% for them. Not everyone matched their trials times, but we were waaaaay closer than other Olympics.
Exactly, the only ones that missed out that may have benefited from the experience, swimmers like Lizzy Dekkers, Sam Short & maybe Jen Forrester.
This was Australia’s first time (Olympic) had trials so close to Olympics, only Titmus in 400 & above swam faster at trials then Olympics.
Maybe we should do top 2 at trials plus time hit in qualifying window?
Yes. I think if you’re top 2 at trials, and have met both criteria (FINA A cut and would have made the final at worlds) at least in the qualification period (even if you don’t necessarily hit that at trials) you should be given a chance. Particularly for those young ones who have never been to an Olympics before because it would give them some great experience.
I think late trials were beneficial.