Ariarne Titmus (Australia) defended her Olympic women’s 400m freestyle swimming title after an epic battle between the world’s three fastest women over the distance
The 17-year-old Summer McIntosh (Canada) took the silver and Katie Ledecky (USA) won the bronze. All three medalists held the world record in the event at different stages of their careers.
The final of the women’s 400m freestyle swimming was compared to the epic race of the men’s 200m freestyle, the so-called “Race of the Century” between Michael Phelps (USA), Ian Thorpe (Australia) and Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands) at the Athens 2004 Olympics.
Ariarne Titmus conducted the race excellently tactically and won the Olympic title with a time of 3:57.49 min.
Summer McIntosh finished second in 3:58.37 min to pick up her first Olympic medal since finishing fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when she was 14. The Canadian held the world record for four months last year before Ariarne Titmus regained it.
The legendary Katie Ledecky finished third in 4:00.86 min. This is the 11th medal for the American from the Olympic Games.
