Team USA Swims To Success In Weekend One of Olympics

The Olympics have officially begun, and weekend one has come to an end with Team USA swimming their way to the top.

Swimming has always been a highly anticipated sport to watch due to the record-breaking times achieved by past Olympians. According to the official Olympics website, “At the Olympic Games, swimming events are held in a pool measuring 50 metres in length. The four strokes of Olympic swimming events—for both individual and relay races—are breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, and front crawl; the front crawl is predominantly used in freestyle races, and as such the term freestyle is often used as a synonym for front crawl.”

During this event, both men and women made their way to the top three in several rounds. On Saturday, July 27, USA swimmer Katie Ledecky earned a bronze medal in the women’s 400m freestyle, and the women’s team received a silver medal in the Women’s 4x400m freestyle relay, coming in second place.

Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh were the stars of this weekend as they placed top two in the Women’s 100m butterfly on Sunday, July 28 – Torri received a gold medal, and Gretchen was awarded a silver medal. The first-place winner was timed at 55.59 seconds, while second place followed closely at 55.63 seconds.

With her victory, 21-year-old Huske brought her teammate up with her on the podium to celebrate with the national anthem. She expressed her disbelief after the race, saying, “I feel like I’m in shock right now…I don’t even know how to process it, I feel like I’m going to cry, but I’m also smiling. It’s really surreal. Like you said, I just missed the podium last time by a hundredth, so I’m so thankful to be here and to do it with Gretchen is just amazing.”

The men also had their moment to shine. Nic Fink earned a silver medal in the Men’s 400m IM, while Carson Foster secured a bronze medal in a separate race, Team USA received the gold medal for the Men’s 4x400m freestyle relay.