If you win gold at the Olympics, you can say whatever you’d like!
There have been a lot of incredibly wonderful and genuine human reactions from athletes winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics, but Australia’s Kaylee McKeown may have the most unintentionally hilarious one.
Mere moments after McKeown won gold in the women’s 100m backstroke event, the 20-year-old swimmer was then interviewed by 7Olympics, Australia’s Olympic TV station. When asked what words she had for her mother and sister after winning her first Olympic medal, McKeown could not contain her joy
“F*ck yeah!”
Yes, that happened, and on live television too! You have to watch the entire clip, in which McKeown nearly curses again after realizing what she had done.
If you win an Olympic Gold Medal, you have earned the right to say what you like. Well done! pic.twitter.com/LG7r1ltdSV
This is, hands down, my favorite moment of the Olympics thus far. Congratulations to McKeown on the Olympic gold, and the iconic interview to cap it all off!
Lydia Jacoby is the first swimmer from Alaska to compete at the Olympics, and the 17 year old shocked the women’s 100-meter breaststroke field Tuesday morning in Tokyo (Monday night in the U.S.).
She shot to the front of the field at the very end of the intense 100 breaststroke and won gold ahead of South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker and fellow American and world record-holder Lilly King.
After the first 50 meters, Schoenmaker and King had control of the race and were 1-2 going into the turn, as King trailed by .30 seconds. But Jacoby was right there with them in third and behind Schoenmaker by just .33 seconds.
Even by the 75-meter mark, it looked like Schoenmaker and King would battle it out for gold and silver. And then Jacoby absolutely surged.
With long, gliding strokes, Jacoby — who’s also just the second Alaska native to compete in the Summer Games in any event, per NBC — out-paced Schoenmaker and King in the final 25 and pulled ahead in the final few meters for a wild finish. She out-touched Schoenmaker by .27 seconds.
Jacoby’s gold medal-winning time was 1:04.95, with going 1:05.22 and King — who won the 100 breaststroke gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics — putting up 1:05.54.
King’s world record is 1:04.13, and Schoenmaker set the event’s Olympic record in prelims at 1:04.82.
We’ve seen a lot of incredible winning celebrations since the start of the Tokyo Olympics, but this Australian swimming coach may take the cake.
On Sunday, America’s own Katie Ledecky made her Tokyo Olympic debut during the women’s 400 meter freestyle. It was a close race, with Ledecky finishing second while Australian Ariarne Titmus took home the gold in a thrilling finish.
However, Titmus’ coach stole the show while celebrating her wild victory, a joyous and boisterous show of emotion after a wonderful race between two incredible competitors. You will not find a more emotional celebration than the one Titmus’ coach just had.
Titmus came out on top of Ledecky in the absolutely thrilling 400-meter freestyle final Monday morning in Japan (and Sunday night in Tokyo), and the race came down to the final few strokes.
Ledecky opened the mid-distance final with a strong first 200, and the 24-year-old world record holder and gold medalist from the 2016 Rio Games remained in control of the first half of the race. But in the next lane, 20-year-old Titmus started to make a move on Ledecky going into the 300-meter mark, and when they hit the wall for the final 100 meters, Titmus trailed Ledecky by just .16 seconds.
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By the time they turned for the final 50, Titmus had a .22 lead over Ledecky and held on to win gold with a time of 3:56.69 — the second-fastest time in history behind Ledecky’s world record of 3:56.46 from the 2016 Olympics. This was Titmus’ first Olympic medal.
Australia's Ariarne Titmus wins the Olympic gold medal in the women's 400m free.@KatieLedecky gets the silver, earning her first Olympic medal of these #TokyoOlympics.
Ledecky took silver at 3:57.36 — the fourth-fastest time in history — and China’s Li Bingjie won bronze at 4:01.08. American Paige Madden finished seventh with a time of 4:06.81.
This is the first time Ledecky didn’t win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.
And although fans of Ledecky’s have come to expect her to dominate and she entered the final with the fastest seed time, she actually wasn’t favored to win this event going into the Olympics. At the Australian trials last month, Titmus came within half a second of Ledecky’s world record in the 400 free with a time of 3:56.90 — which was the fastest time in the world this year until she won gold.
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Titmus also beat Ledecky in the 400 free at the 2019 world championships after chasing Ledecky down in the final 50 meters.
And after the 400 free final at the Tokyo Games, Ledecky and Titmus hugged it out.
This probably isn’t the last time Ledecky and Titmus will go head-to-head at the Games. Ledecky is likely going to race for at least 6,000 meters this week, and the pair are set to face off in the 200-meter freestyle and 800-meter freestyle — but Ledecky is still a heavy favorite in the latter.
The Olympics are built on incredible moments of athletic ability mixed with genuine human emotion. On Saturday during the men’s 400 meter freestyle event, we got quite the surprise out of Tunisia in one of the best moments of these early Tokyo Olympics.
Out of the lane eight position, 18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui stunned the field after placing first in the event with an unbelievable finish. Hafnaoui had a strong final turn in the last 50 meters, besting the Australian Jack McLoughlin and American Kieran Smith for the gold.
It’s a finish you have to watch, not only for the nail-biting ending but also Hafnaoui’s emotional reaction to placing first.
WHAT A FINISH.
From lane 8, Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui wins Olympic gold and @TeamUSA's Kieran Smith gets the bronze. #TokyoOlympics
Now that is what the Olympics are all about right there. Hafnaoui’s gold medal is Tunisia’s third medal overall in swimming, marking an incredible moment for the 18-year-old and his home country.
Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland finished 1-2 in one of swimming’s toughest events, the 400 IM.
Chase Kalisz absolutely crushed the men’s 400-meter individual medley Sunday morning (and Saturday night in the U.S.) at the Tokyo Olympics, winning Team USA’s overall first medal at the Games. And it was gold with a time of 4:09.42.
Not only that, fellow American Jay Litherland surged in the final leg of the brutal, four-stroke event to take silver (4:10.28), while Australia’s Brendon Smith took the bronze medal (4:10.38).
Kalisz — who won the silver medal in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics — had a strong performance in the opening heats and was seeded third entering the final. But his gold medal-winning swim was even better.
The 27-year-old swimmer had a solid and controlled first half of the event through the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke legs, before coming home strong with a 100 breaststroke and 100 freestyle. The breaststroke leg is Kalisz’s strongest in the event, and it was phenomenal as his long stroke helped him surge to the front of the field. And he was able to hold on to win the first swimming final of the Games.
Perhaps the toughest swimming event in the pool, Kalisz said he’s learned “to embrace the pain the 400 IM brings,” but also said he’s not sure how many more of these swims he has in him.
Entering the final, the top-8 swimmers were separated by less than a second. But noticeably missing from the 400 IM final was defending world champion Daiya Seto, who failed to make the final after he finished fifth in his heat with a time of 4:10.52. In April, Seto swam the fastest time in the world this year at 4:09.02 — which still stands after the 400 IM Olympic final — and he was considered a favorite to medal in the event, if not win it all.
But without Seto in the final, the door was open for the two American swimmers to medal and land on the top of the podium.
However, despite this awesome first final, none of the swimmers got close to breaking Michael Phelps’ world record of 4:03.84 from 2008. It’s Phelps’ last-standing individual world record.
Katie Ledecky is about to swim an absurd amount at the Tokyo Games.
Katie Ledecky is now a three-time Olympian with six Olympic medals — five gold and one silver — but her most daunting lineup for the Games is ahead of her.
The 24-year-old American swimmer is the still the powerhouse athlete fans will remember from the 2016 Rio Games. But with the addition of her best event, the 1,500-meter freestyle, to the Olympic program this year, she’s about to swim a ridiculous amount in just seven days.
Individually, Ledecky qualified for her third Olympics in the 200-meter freestyle, the 400-meter freestyle, the 800-meter freestyle and the 1,500, also referred to as the mile. With relays, she could also become the first American woman to win five gold medals at a single Games.
Based on her individual events alone, she could end up racing 6,000 meters if she advances to the final in each event — which is very likely. To put that in perspective, a total of 6,000 meters is about 3.7 miles and not too far from the marathon swimmers who compete in the open-water 10K.
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Did you know @katieledecky’s broken the world record in the 1500m free SIX times?
That’s an enormous amount, even for a distance swimmer but especially when compared with the sprinters, who swim no more than a few hundred meters total at most. But it highlights her versatility, as many swimmers cannot compete in both the mile and the 200 free.
“It’s a lot of training and a lot of practicing those races and that racing load,” Ledecky recently told For The Win, pointing to the Olympic Trials in June when she most recently competed in this lineup.
“It was good to just go through that and kind of remind myself of what that feels like and what the different races feel like in the context of swimming all of those races. … I really just kind of try to take it one race at a time, and I think I did a good job of that [at trials]. And I’ve done that in meets in preparation for the trials, so I feel like I have a good amount of experience behind me to lead me forward to the Games.”
With so many distance events, Ledecky sort of lucked out. The 200 free is her only individual event with a semifinal, while the 400, 800 and 1,500 go straight from the prelim heats to the final.
“I never set medal count goals or anything like that because I feel like that’s out of my control,” Ledecky said. “I can’t control if someone has some really fast swims and beats me and things like that. So I just tried to focus on my goal times and how I want to swim each of my races.”
Swimming fans know of Ledecky’s unbelievable dominance — though she will have some serious competition in the 200 and 400 freestyle events — but her lineup for the Tokyo Olympics is outrageous. Sunday, July 25 will be her first day of competition, and Monday, July 26 is probably her most grueling day.
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Here’s a look at Ledecky’s likely individual schedule for the Games in both Japan Standard Time and Eastern Standard Time, which is sometimes the day prior.
Sunday, July 25
400 free heats — about 8 p.m. JST (7 a.m. ET)
Monday, July 26
400 free final — about 11:20 a.m. JST (10 p.m. ET, Sunday)
200 free heats — about 7 p.m. JST (6 a.m. ET)
1,500 free heats — about 7:50 p.m. JST (6:50 a.m. ET)
Tuesday, July 27
200 free semifinals — about 10:30 a.m. JST (9:30 p.m. ET, Monday)
Wednesday, July 28
200 free final — about 10:40 a.m. JST (9:40 p.m. ET, Tuesday)
1,500 free final — about 11:50 a.m. JST (10:50 p.m. ET, Tuesday)
Thursday, July 29
800 free heats — about 7 p.m. JST (6 a.m. ET) *The 4×200-meter freestyle relay final is Thursday at about 12:30 p.m. JST, which is 11 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Saturday, July 31
800 free final — about 10:45 a.m. JST (9:45 p.m. ET, Friday)
At 27 years old, American swimmer Natalie Hinds made her first Olympic team after initially retiring in 2016.
After a disappointing performance at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, Natalie Hinds’ swimming career came to an abrupt and devastating end. Or so she thought. She quietly waved goodbye to the sport, graduated from Florida and moved to Atlanta for an internship in digital sports media.
But her love for swimming never completely evaporated.
And now, five years after retiring and letting go of her Olympic dream, the 27-year-old swimmer has mounted an incredible comeback, qualifying for her first Games as one of the oldest first-time American Olympic swimmers in history.
“I still have moments where I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m at [training] camp to go to the Olympics,'” Hinds recently told For The Win. “Like, this is so crazy. And you really prepare for this moment, but you really can’t fully prepare for the actual moment.”
At the Rio trials in 2016, she finished 40th in the 100-meter freestyle — her highest finish in three events and a far distance away from the top-2 swimmers who qualified for the 2016 Games. (She also competed in the 2012 trials.)
“I was just disappointed, and I felt like I really just let distractions get to me throughout that past year,” Hinds said. “I kind of just didn’t want to swim anymore. I wasn’t swimming fast, and it wasn’t enjoyable for me at the time. So that just kind of equals being miserable.”
A 20-time All-American Florida Gator, she was embarrassed and didn’t announce her departure from the pool. So the then-22-year-old Midland, Texas native began working for Turner Sports and eventually Bleacher Report, while coaching swimming as a second job. And that was about as close as she got to watching swimming or keeping up with the sport on an elite level “because it was just still painful.”
But something changed for her as she watched the 2018 U.S. nationals.
“I think it just took me seeing how much fun they were having at nationals to start to get the wheels turning like, ‘Is that something that I’d want to do?'” Hinds said. “I did a lot of soul-searching before I decided that I was going to give this a try.”
Hinds tested herself at first to see if she could consistently get up at 5 a.m. for an early workout at the pool and have the drive to keep going. By Fall 2018, at 24 years old, she was training with Athens Bulldog Swim Club under Georgia Bulldogs coach Jack Bauerle and competed in her first meet that December.
But like her exit from the sport two years before, Hinds didn’t tell anyone she was attempting a comeback. She said she worried about announcing her return and swimming poorly again, so she decided to mostly keep it quiet — part of her efforts to grow as a person and athlete, limiting outside distractions and pressure to focus purely on herself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jd_IoY3keQ
And now, Hinds made her first Olympic team as one of the oldest swimmers on Team USA and the second-oldest member of the American women’s team competing in the pool, behind 31-year-old four-time Olympian Allison Schmitt. (Overall, marathon swimmer Ashley Twichell is the oldest first-time Olympic swimmer at 31, per USA Swimming, and she’ll swim the open-water 10K at the Games.)
With a time of 53.84, Hinds finished fourth in the 100 freestyle, which was strong enough to qualify her for the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team and bring her remarkable comeback story full circle. She dropped nearly three seconds off her time — an eternity in sprints — compared to the 2016 trials.
“I’m a completely different swimmer, ” Hinds said.
“You learned about yourself when you’re not swimming all the time,” she continued. “A mental break for me was really good. It allowed me to reset and just fall in love with the sport again because you obviously don’t want to do something you don’t love or that you’re not having fun doing.”
The opening heats for the 4×100 free relay will close Saturday night’s lineup at the Tokyo Aquatics Center (about 7:40 a.m. ET), and the final is set for Sunday morning (about 10:45 p.m. ET Saturday).
Abbey Weitzeil, Erika Brown, Olivia Smoliga and Natalie Hinds celebrate at the medal ceremony for the 100 freestyle Olympic Trials in June. (Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
Since her swimming comeback, Hinds said she’s much more focused on nutrition and recovery. She’s mindful of her physical and mental health and said she her emphasis on visualization has alleviated some pressure and helped her when she’s behind the blocks ready to race. Shutting out social media ahead of Olympic Trials in June was also key. She now listens to audio books and began weaving “as a way to cope with the anxiety,” which she then turned into a side business, Loominary Design, last year.
Hinds’ new approach to her training is working for her now that she’s in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, and some on the team see her as a natural leader, despite being an Olympic rookie.
“I’ve gotten to know Natalie over the last few years, and she’s an awesome young person,” said Team USA’s women’s coach Greg Meehan, who also coaches at Stanford. “Fiercely competitive, and to see her in that moment at trials make her first Olympic team was really special. …
“She has this energy, and it makes everybody around comfortable. And so when you when you take that personal setting and bring it over to the pool, or you add to the competitive piece once we’re outside of training and actually go into competition, we are really blessed that she’s here with us.”
Simone Manuel and Natalie Hinds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
In 2015, Manuel, Neal and Hinds finished 1-2-3 in the 100-yard free, respectively, becoming the first Black swimmers to sweep an event at NCAA championships in what Hinds described as “a turning point” for her. She began working to create experiences for Black people and people of color interested in swimming and elite levels of the sport through speaking engagements, free swim lessons and collaborations with USA Swimming and Team BLAC — the Black Leadership in Aquatics Coalition, which was formed in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd.
Hinds said she’s the only Black swimmer on Georgia’s pro team, and she and her white peers have had uncomfortable conversations about racism in and outside of swimming. Her efforts to talk about racism in swimming and help diversify the sport have been aided by her white teammates, she said, though she acknowledged other swimmers of color might not feel similarly.
“Me making the Olympics is really cool, personally,” Hinds said. “But it also is an amazing win for the Black community and the minority community because I’m the fourth [American] Black female [swimmer] to make the Olympic swim team. And as amazing as that is, it’s really sad also.
“So it’s just important that I’m always representing a larger group of people and doing what I can to help, so there’s more people that come after me. And hopefully they can see me and be like, ‘Wow, she literally was living a completely different life and decided to come back.'”
Hinds’ return to the pool after retiring is an example for swimmers in college or their 20s to keep pushing, Meehan said. While many first-time Olympic swimmers for Team USA are in their teens and early 20s — there are 11 teenagers on the U.S. Olympic swim team this summer — Hinds proves that doesn’t always have to be the case.
“Obviously, [Hinds is a] fantastic human being,” said Olympic swimmer Lilly King. “I love just being around her and getting to know her more and more each day. But I think it just goes to show that this sport isn’t just for young girls, which is what it was even just 10 years ago. You can look back and find a different way of training and really make the best out of it. You just have to be determined to do it.”
Still, when Hinds hit the wall in the 100 free at Olympic Trials and saw her fourth-place finish, the reality of her Olympic dream coming true didn’t immediately sink in, she said. She didn’t realize she was going to the Tokyo Games until after the medal ceremony when she returned to the warm-down pool.
It was at the end of competition for the night, and no one was really around her, she said. It was quiet, and when she finally had a moment to herself, it hit her.
“In a matter of 10 seconds, I had gone through two and a half years of feelings,” Hinds said. “So it was a very overwhelming feeling, and I was not really able to stand. I just needed a moment to breathe through it and like accept that I’m really proud of myself.
“I felt very grateful — just very grateful that it was me who made this team, and I was grateful that I was able to leave [no] stone unturned. And it worked out for me.”
Caeleb Dressel already has two Olympic golds, but he could win a lot more at the Tokyo Olympics.
For the Tokyo Olympics this summer, For The Win is helping you get to know some of the star Olympians competing on the world’s biggest stage. Leading up to the Opening Ceremony, we’re highlighting 23 athletes in 23 days. Closing out the series is Caeleb Dressel.
Although swimming fans are well-versed on the incredible talents of Caeleb Dressel, the 24-year-old sprinter isn’t quite a household name among general sports fans — yet. Because with his outrageous speed and versatility, he’s in position to bring home a ton of hardware and be a star of the Tokyo Olympics.
The former Florida Gators swimmer is headed to his second Olympics after competing in the 2016 Rio Games, when he won two medals. But since then, he’s picked up some speed, along with 13 total world championships.
So ahead of Dressel’s second Olympics, here are five things to know about Team USA’s swimming superstar and team captain (along with Simone Manuel, Ryan Murphy and Allison Schmitt).
The 400 IM is perhaps the most grueling event in the pool.
Ask just about any long-time swimmer what event they’d absolutely dread racing, and it’s a good bet that many — if not, most — would point to the 400-meter individual medley in this hypothetical scenario.
The 400 IM is a wholly brutal event that conjures up feelings of agony, soreness and impossibility with 100 meters each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. So, obviously, to succeed in the event, swimmers’ versatility is crucial — but so is endurance and the strategy of knowing when and how to use your energy and muscle groups.
“The 400 IM is such a unique event because, I think personally, it is more strategic than any other event,” said Chase Kalisz, Team USA’s silver medalist in the 400 IM from the 2016 Rio Olympics. He also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in both the 400 and 200-meter IMs — and the latter is 50 meters of each stroke.
“I think it’s a race that needs more planning than any other event. It needs [more] specialized training than any other event.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5JKkKTeM0c
Prior to retiring from swimming after the 2016 Rio Games, Michael Phelps dominated the 400 IM for years, winning Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008. And it’s his last-standing individual world record with a time of 4:03.84, which he set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on his way to winning a record-breaking eight gold medals.
Kalisz qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in June by winning the 400 IM with a time of 4:09.09 — the second-fastest time in the world this year in that event behind Japan’s Daiya Seto, who went 4:09.02 in April.
For 27-year-old Kalisz — a Maryland native who swam for Georgia in college who still trains with Bulldogs coach Jack Bauerle, along with Bob Bowman, who famously coached Phelps — that preparation involves focusing on the 400 IM in practice regardless of what kind of set he’s doing.
For example, Kalisz said that includes working to negative-split the second half — the breaststroke and freestyle legs — of 400 IMs in practice. He said it’s also about “being comfortable not using legs on my butterfly, even it was a butterfly-specific set,” because he can’t waste his legs on the opening 100 of the 400 IM if he wants to have a strong finish.
But make no mistake, even a top-notch swimmer like Kalisz thinks this event is a torturous one, but he said he’s worked to embrace the impending pain that’s guaranteed every time he dives into the water for the 400 IM.
“There’s a lot of really great 400 IMers out there,” Kalisz said. “But if you really want to break into that world-class, rarefied air of I guess, say, 4:07 or faster, that’s how you have to train, and that’s really kind of a mindset you have to have you have. You have to embrace the pain the 400 IM brings, and that’s what I spent the last year or so doing.
“I’ve had races where I was never really nervous for the race, but I was more so nervous for the pain that is about to come and how I was going to feel the next day. And that’s really what the culmination of this year for me has been, was embracing that, looking forward to that.”
Chase Kalisz and Michael Phelps practice at Arizona State in 2016. (Michael Chow, Arizona Republic/USA TODAY Network)
The 400 IM made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and 17-year-old American Dick Roth won gold and broke the world record, amazingly despite being told he needed to have an emergency operation for acute appendicitis. He refused the operation in favor of the Olympic final, and apparently the pain of the grueling race outweighed his illness because “I forgot my hot appendix during the race,” Roth said, via Swimming World magazine.
While Kalisz’s trials time in the 400 IM was a comfortable five seconds off Phelps’ world record, the Rio silver medalist owns the fourth-fastest time in history in the event at 4:05.90, which he swam at the 2017 world championships. After Phelps’ world record, Ryan Lochte has the second-fastest time ever (4:05.18) and Phelps has the third (4:05.25).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY7QIrKSKOo
The 400 IM is so viciously taxing that Kalisz said he’s not sure how many more races he has left in him at this point in his swimming career.
“I could have two 400 IMs left in my career,” Kalisz said about the heats and final at the Tokyo Olympics (there are no semifinals in this event). “I don’t want to say that for sure. I don’t want to commit to anything for sure.
“I can go longer. But there’s not too many left of those for me, so I’m going to make every single one of them hurt as much as I can. And like I said, I’m looking forward to it.”
The heats of the men’s 400 IM open the swimming competition at the Tokyo Games on Saturday with the final set for the following day.
