The 2024 Paris Olympics have been underway for over a week as thousands of athletes have gathered in an attempt to win medals for their countries.
Swimmers from Team USA stole the show on Sunday, setting multiple records during the final night of swim competitions.
Team USA swimmer Bobby Finke cruised to a gold medal in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle with a time of 14:30.67, surpassing the previous record of 14:31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang during the 2012 London Games, according to NBC Olympics.
The two-time Olympian quickly took control of the race and never looked back. He was in the lead for nearly the entire race, though he remained behind the world record pace for the majority of the 30 laps.
An extra push by Finke in the race’s final laps helped propel him to the world record. After the race, the swimmer said he could “see the world record line on the board a couple of times.”
“It wasn’t like I was trying to see it. I just happened to see it,” he explained, per NBC Olympics.
“I’m just happy I won. I had a lot of pressure going into the race.”
Finke, who won gold medals in the 800—and 1,500-meter freestyles during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said he was focused on reclaiming the top spot after taking silver in the 800-meter race earlier in these games.
“I really wanted to get on top of the podium again and hear the anthem all over again like I did for the first time in Tokyo,” he said after the race, as reported by ESPN.
Now, Finke will travel back to the U.S. with yet another gold medal and a world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle.
The USA women’s swim team then took the stand and set their own world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay with a final time of 3:49.63, destroying the previous record of 3:50.40 set by the U.S. during the 2019 World Championships, according to The Associated Press.
The foursome of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske carried Team USA to the gold medal while defeating rival Australia and avenging their loss in Tokyo, which forced them to settle for the silver medal.
Smith opened the race by jumping out to an early lead in the backstroke, followed by King and Walsh, who maintained this advantage through each of the next two portions of the race, per The Olympics.
Huske, who won a gold medal in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, anchored Team USA and swam up to the wall more than three seconds ahead of Australia, which finished with a time of 3:53.11.
King said after the race that the Olympic games had been a special experience for her, and it was even better because she had the opportunity to win alongside some of her closest friends.
“It’s cool to be a part of that relay (team) and watch it get faster and faster, with pretty much the same people. It’s awesome to see everybody improving. An awesome way to cap off the meet,” said King.
Team USA has been atop the medal count for nearly the entirety of the games.
By Sunday’s end, Team USA had more than 70 medals and will surely continue to collect more in the coming week.
Team USA easily leads all countries in both silver and bronze medals and is competing with only China as the country to have collected the most gold medals to this point in the Olympics.