‘The world’s getting faster’: business as unusual as US swimmers’ dominance erodes

At a glance the Paris swimming medal table looks much as it did three years ago for the United States – top once again, both in golds and overall medals.

But the meet continued a narrative that emerged in Tokyo of supremacy maintained but dominance lost. When Bobby Finke retained his men’s 1500m freestyle title on Sunday on the final day of the Olympic meet, he was salvaging pride for the American men rather than signing off from France with an exclamation point on behalf of his nation.

Without Finke’s triumph in a world-record time, the US would have ended without a men’s individual swimming gold for the first time since Paris hosted the Games in 1900 (aside, of course, from the boycotted 1980 Games.) And that miss 124 years ago was eminently forgivable given the circumstances, since only one American swimmer participated.

The women’s 4x100m medley team also broke the world record while winning on Sunday to ensure the US finished with the most gold medals this meet, and add a glossy sheen to a day that signalled the end of a dynasty.

That this meet was business as unusual was underlined when the US settled for silver in the men’s 4x100m medley, losing to a Chinese team embroiled in controversy after two of its members were allowed to compete despite testing positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics.

The result ended a 64-year unbeaten run for the Americans that stretched back to the event’s introduction in 1960. And American men reached the podium in only six of the 14 individual events. For the first time in 20 years, no one US men’s star ruled the pool in multiple events as Michael Phelps did between 2004 and 2016 and Caeleb Dressel did in Japan in 2021. The programme is not accustomed to quite so many lows mixing with the highs.

“Our goal is always to match our times or be better,” said the men’s coach, Anthony Nesty, according to USA Today. “But obviously they could have been better. You have to go back and look at your preparation coming into the meet and be better.”

Still, the week was hardly a disaster. The US concluded with eight golds, 13 silvers and seven bronzes for a total of 28, with Australia in second with seven golds, eight silvers and three bronzes for 18 total medals, ahead of a host nation powered by the Arizona-based Léon Marchand’s four golds.

The Americans won 30 medals in Tokyo and were also pushed close by the Australians, with the US’s 11 golds, 10 silvers and nine bronzes ahead of Australia’s nine golds, three silvers and nine bronzes, and Great Britain in third.

But it’s a far cry from Rio eight years ago, when the Americans’ stunning haul of 33 medals included 16 golds, with the next-best nations, Australia and Hungary, trailing with only three first-place podium positions apiece. London 2012 also produced 16 American golds.

Yet the Australians led the Americans in golds, 7-6, going into the final evening in Paris, raising the prospect of an upset: the US last failed to top the medal table in 1988. And Australia and China won more gold medals than the US at last year’s World Aquatics Championships.

“The world’s getting faster, and I think it’s a really good thing,” Finke told reporters. “It’s a really healthy thing for the sport. If one country is always dominating, I can’t really sit there and say the sport is growing. So as much as it sucks that we’re not dominating anymore, it’s good for the sport.”

It was a different, more satisfying, story for the women, who won four individual golds: two for Katie Ledecky in the 800m and 1500m freestyle, one for Torri Huske in the 100m butterfly and another for Kate Douglass in the 200m breaststroke. And they collected 12 individual medals across nine events.

Ledecky’s four medals made her the most decorated American female Olympian, and her nine golds ties her with the Soviet gymnast, Larisa Latynina, for most golds won by a woman.

Dressel, who won five golds in Tokyo, three of them individual, anchored the 4x100m freestyle team to a third straight Olympic gold, but a busy schedule appeared to drain some of his energy for the individual contests. “I don’t think we’re getting any worse, per se. It’s good for the sport to have the whole world involved,” Dressel told reporters. “The wealth has just been spread around.”

Veteran mainstays such as Ryan Murphy, Dressel, Simone Manuel and Ledecky will be in their 30s by the time Los Angeles 2028 rolls around. That, and some of the underwhelming performances, might suggest that the US programme is set to enter a transition period. Still, given the likely boost the Americans will enjoy as hosts, it would hardly be a surprise if the country once more holds off improving challengers to top the standings again in 2028. Equally, on this evidence, it would no longer be a seismic shock if they didn’t.