3 Longhorns lift US to silver in men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay over rival Aussies

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A trio of Texas Longhorns helped bring the United States another medal in the pool Tuesday at the Paris Olympics.

Longhorns Drew Kibler, Luke Hobson and Carson Foster teamed up with Florida Gator Kieran Smith to capture silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at Paris La Defense Arena, turning in a time of 7 minutes, 0.78 seconds to defeat rival Australia by more than a second. Great Britain won the gold with a time of 6:59.43.

“We just wanted to give everything we had,” Kibler said.

Kibler and Foster are former Longhorn swimmers while Hobson will be a senior this coming school year. Kibler, who swam the third leg of the race, was a 21-time All-American from 2019-22 and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Games. He also helped the Longhorns win the 2021 NCAA men’s swimming championship.

“It’s so much fun. The main Longhorn guys are some of my best friends. It’s so cool to be able to show all of the hard work you put in over the years with these guys…have them right by your side and give them a big hug afterward,” Hobson said.

Hobson swam the opening leg of the race with Smith anchoring the team. Hobson won bronze in the 200 freestyle Monday , giving him two medals for the Games.

“A lot of it is our coach Eddie Reese, who’s retiring this year. He’s just such an amazing guy. He’s up there in age but he knows what he’s doing. He’s produced guys for the last six or seven Olympics…literally forever in the swimming world. (We want to) live up to expectations of the guys that came before us and the guys that will come after us,” Hobson said.

Foster swam at Texas for three years before turning pro after his junior season and won bronze in the 400 IM earlier in the Games , his second medal in Paris. He swam the second leg of the relay.

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In other swims, Longhorn alum Caspar Corbeau qualified for the 200 breaststroke finals with a time of 2:09.52. Corbeau is representing the Netherlands at the Games and will swim for a medal at 3:15 p.m. CDT, Tuesday.

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