U.S. swimmers set two world records
The German swimmers do not intervene in the medal fight again on the final day. The Americans cheer for a double world record: First, Bobby Finke swims 1500 meters freestyle faster than anyone before him, and then the women's relay team wins gold with a new record.
The German Olympic swimming team bid farewell to the Paris La Defense Arena with a seventh place in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay. Ole Braunschweig, Melvin Imoudu, Luca Armbruster, and Josha Salchow had nothing to do with the medal fight in the penultimate final of the Summer Games, finishing in 3:32.46 minutes.
China, with world record holder Pan Zhanle as the final swimmer, triumphed ahead of the USA and France. The host nation's new national hero, Leon Marchand, added a bronze medal to his four golds from individual events.
For the German team, it was the 17th final, significantly improving their record from Tokyo 2021, where there were only eight final appearances. The medal tally also improved: instead of two bronzes, there was one gold and one bronze, the best result since 2008. Additionally, five German records were set.
Two world records in quick succession
The competitions, which began brilliantly with Lukas Martens' gold in the first final over 400 meters freestyle, ended with the biggest disappointment for Germany: in the final over 1500 meters, which American Tokyo Olympic champion Bobby Finke won in world record time of 14:30.67 minutes, Florian Wellbrock, who had won bronze three years ago, was missing. Finke beat the old record of Chinese Sun Yang from 2012 by 35 hundredths of a second.
The victory of the women's medley relay in the last race of Paris - also with a world record (3:49.63 minutes) - secured the USA first place in the medal table: with eight golds, 13 silvers, and seven bronzes, ahead of Australia (7-8-3). Sweden's swimming queen Sarah Sjöström won her third Olympic gold in the 50-meter freestyle, adding to her European Championship title in 2008.
Despite Germany's absence in the medal fight for the 1500 meters freestyle event, the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris witnessed another world record set by Bobby Finke from the USA. In the final race of the games, the American women's medley relay team also broke a world record, ultimately placing the USA at the top of the medal table.
