The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 30 and 31 July 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.
In the final, Sjöström won gold with a time of 52.16, the US' Torri Huske swam 52.29 for silver and Haughey won bronze with 52.33—0.01 seconds ahead of O'Callaghan who finished fourth with 52.34. Sjöström's win made her the first person to win medals in this event at non-consecutive Olympics, and she was also four years older than any other swimmer in the final. The Guardian called the it an "exceptionally close race".
The qualifying times of the top five qualifiers—Haughey, O'Callaghan, Sjöström, Steenbergen and Jack—were separated by 0.26 seconds.[2] Olympic champion Emma McKeon failed to qualify for the event.[2]
Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted O'Callaghan would win gold. SwimSwam predicted Sjöström would come second and Haughey would come third, while Swimming World predicted Haughey would come second and Steenbergen would come third.[2][5]
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[6] For this event, the OQT was 53.61 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[6][7] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 53.88 for this event.[6] In total, 14 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 14 athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.[7]
Four heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 12:47.[a][8] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[9] Sjöström swam the fastest qualifying time of 52.99, while Haughey, Steenbergen, O'Callaghan and Jack also all qualified.[10]Kayla Sanchez of the Philippines swam a time of 53.67 to qualify in joint tenth and break her country's national record.[11]Canada's Maggie Mac Neil qualified with the 16th fastest time, but withdrew from the event to focus on the relay events she was competing in.[12]
Two semifinals took place on 30 July, starting at 21:33.[13] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[9] Haughey won the first semifinal with the fastest qualifying time of 52.64, and Jack placed second to qualify with the second fastest time of 52.72. O'Callaghan won the second semifinal with the third fastest time of 52.75. China's Yang Junxuan qualified with the fourth fastest time, followed by Steenbergen, Sjöström, and then the US' Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh.[14][13]SlovenianNeža Klančar swam a time of 53.96, which tied the national record but did not qualify her for the final.[15][13]
The final took place at 20:30 on 31 July.[16] Sjöström swam what SwimSwam called a "balanced race" to win gold with a time of 52.16,[17][4] while Huske swam the fastest opening split and stayed ahead of everyone but Sjöström to win silver with 52.29. Haughey won bronze with 52.33—0.01 seconds ahead of O'Callaghan who finished fourth with 52.34.[17] After the race, O'Callaghan said she "expected a lot more".[18][19]The Guardian called the final an "exceptionally close race".[20]
The gold was Sjöström's first Olympic medal in the event since 2016, when she won bronze at the Rio Olympics.[17] This made her the first person to win medals in this event at non-consecutive Olympics,[21] and she was also four years older than any other swimmer in the final.[18] It was Huske and Haughey's second Olympic medal of the games,[17] and Haughey became the first swimmer to medal in both the 100 metre freestyle and 200 metre freestyle events at consecutive Olympics.[21]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
