Cate Campbell put the disappointment of missing out on individual medals in the 50m freestyle behind her by anchoring the Australian women’s 4x100m medley relay team to silver. The Australian team touched out Denmark for second place by one-one-hundredth of a second, posting a time of 3:55.00, behind a dominant Team USA, who took gold.
Backstroker Emily Seebohm led the team out with a strong first leg, touching third behind Denmark and Canada. A powerful breaststroke leg from the controversial Yulia Efimova put Russia right back in contention as they touched ahead of USA in the second leg, before a solid butterfly leg from Emma McKeon had Australia back as an outside shot for a placing.
Cue Campbell, who powered past the 50m gold medallist, Denmark’s Pernille Blume, to grab silver at the final touch while Simone Manuel ploughed ahead for the Americans. After the race, Campbell expressed her relief at getting something out of an otherwise disappointing last few days.
“It was so satisfying, I kept my head and I didn’t panic, and I have to be proud of that,” said Campbell.
Meanwhile, in the final swimming event of the Games, Kyle Chalmers stormed home in the freestyle leg to propel Australia to bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay. Michael Phelps secured his 23rd Olympic gold medal as Team USA won ahead of Great Britain in second. The British almost threatened a remarkable upset as Adam Peaty led with a brilliant breaststroke leg, but Phelps hit the wall with the lead after the butterfly, and Nathan Adrian brought it home for the Americans, giving Phelps his fifth gold medal of the Games.
It closed out Australia’s evening in the pool in positive fashion after stars Mack Horton and the highly-touted Campbell sisters both suffered disappointment when they missed out on the medals in the 1500m and 50m freestyle respectively.
Horton had entered the 1500m final among the favourites but finished sixth as Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri took gold ahead of Team USA’s Connor Jaeger and another Italian, Gabrielle Detti. Paltrinieri had been on track to break Sun Yang’s world record for most of the race but fell just short in a time of 14:34.57, while Horton was well off the pace in 14:49.54.
“A little bit disappointing. It’s been a massive week, really,” Horton said after the race. The Australian had battled illness in the aftermath of the 4x200m relay earlier in the week. “It’s been on for eight days and my body’s kind of been on the edge of getting sick for the last couple of days,” he said. “I’ve just been trying to hold it together. I’m just happy to get through that race and super stoked for Greg. He’s a good friend of mine so I’m really happy to see him take a win.”
Horton sat outside of the top three in the early stages of the race as 21-year-old Italian Paltrinieri pushed out to a strong lead – a full body length in front of his nearest rival and was well under world record pace after 300m. By 600m the Italian was more than four seconds clear of the field and he maintained better than world record pace at nearly every turn to lead by six body lengths at the 1000m mark. Horton fought away in fourth spot for much of the race but faded further in the last 400m as Paltrinieri swam his own race with an unstoppable lead.
Moments before that race Australia’s Campbell sisters missed out on individual medals again in their final event of the schedule, beaten out of a podium place by Denmark’s Pernille Blume, American Simone Manuel and Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus.
Cate Campbell finished fifth in a time of 24.15, while sister Bronte faded at the finish to end up seventh in 24.42. Blume took gold in 24.07, narrowly edging out 100m champion Manuel (24.09) and Herasimenia (24.11).
“It wasn’t my best but it’s fair to say this week hasn’t been my best,” Cate Campbell said after the race. “The world got to witness possibly the biggest choke in Olympic history a couple of nights ago. It hurts, but you know, maybe I’ll stick around for another four years.”
Sister Bronte said: “I’m pleased that I got to be part of that final and I wish that final had gone differently but I’m not going to stand around and make excuses with injury and preparation. It’s just not what you’re supposed to do. The only time you’ve failed is when you make excuses for your failures.”
Cate Campbell, who took bronze in this event eight years ago in Beijing, entered the final with the second-fastest qualifying time of 24.32, behind Denmark’s Blume (24.28), while Bronte Campbell had slotted into lane two after posting the fifth fastest time of 24.43. They had to bide their time following the disappointment of missing medals in the 100m freestyle, with the one-lap frenzy being the fourth-last event on the swimming schedule, but it wasn’t to be and both will now ponder Tokyo campaigns in order to break through for individual gold.
