2024 Paris Olympics: Katie Grimes, Emma Weyant go 2-3 in 400-meter IM to highlight dynamic Team USA Swimming

United States Swimming continued its strong start to the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday, totaling four medals across the day's five finals.

Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant helped set the stage by taking silver and bronze, respectively, in the grueling 400-meter individual medley. Grimes, 18, a Las Vegas native who just graduated high school, hung with world record holder (and eventual gold medalist) Summer McIntosh of Canada through the first two disciplines -- butterfly and backstroke -- with both swimmers well ahead of the rest of the field. McIntosh, 17, then pulled away from Grimes in the breaststroke, Grimes' weakest stroke, but Grimes held steady in second and won her first Olympic medal.

Weyant, the 22-year-old University of Florida star, emerged from a crowded group to finish third. It's her second career Olympic medal, following up on the 400m IM silver she won during the Tokyo Games.

Then came the men's 200-meter freestyle, where Luke Hobson earned bronze, finishing just .07 seconds behind gold medalist David Popovici of Romania and .05 seconds behind silver medalist Matthew Richards of Great Britain. Hobson, 21, currently swims for Texas, and this is his first Olympic medal at his first Olympic Games. After starting slow Hobson used his late kick to get on the podium.

Backstroke specialist Ryan Murphy added to his storied career by capturing bronze in the 100-meter backstroke. Murphy won three golds in 2016 -- in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke and the 4x100-meter relay -- and took another three medals in 2020: gold in the 4x100m relay, bronze in the 100m backstroke and silver in the 200m backstroke. He out-touched Greece's Christou Apostolos by .02 seconds to earn a spot on the podium for the seventh time in his career.

Murphy will also swim in the 200m backstroke, and if he medals in that, he'll be the first swimmer ever to medal in both backstroke distances in three straight Olympic Games. World record holder Thomas Ceccon (Italy) and Xu Jiayu (China) finished 1-2.

Monday wasn't without heartbreak, though: Lilly King's quest for a medal in the 100m breaststroke for the third straight Olympics fell just short. After winning gold in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, King missed the podium by one one-hundredth of a second, tying with Bendetta Pilato (Italy) for fourth by the smallest of margins behind Ireland's Mona McSharry. Tatjana Smith (South Africa) and Qianting Tang (China) went 1-2.

Tuesday's finals include the women's 100m backstroke, the men's 800m freestyle and the men's 4x200m freestyle relay.