Emma Weyant was far ahead in the heats, clocked 4:33.50 while all others came 4:35s – so the world rank leader seemed to be set for a fine win here. But it was Yui Ohashi who stole the show and consoled Japan after the shocking exit of Daya Seto in the heat of the men’s event.

Ohashi has been around in this cycle, had a silver in the 200m in Budapest 2017, bronze in Gwangju in the 400m, but her best effort in 2021 was that 4:35.21 in the heats. Now she exploded, expanded her lead stroke by stroke and left the pack behind. Weyant staged a late surge but the gap was still 0.68sec at the wall. Title-holder Katinka Hosszu was off her usual pace, her struggles were visible in the semis, swimming on lane 1 she could only hold on for a bronze for most of the time but in the last 30m Hali Flickinger passed her to claim the bronze – so just like among the men, we saw two US medallists on the podium.

“It doesn’t feel real. It is like a dream for me. I couldn’t go to the Rio Olympics, so for the past five years this became a big dream for me. This accomplishment is amazing for me. And it’s very special for me. Spending time in the Olympic Village with all the athletes and volunteers and all the staff supporting me - has helped make it become real” Ohashi said joyfully.

MEN'S 400 IM

The first final in the morning already demonstrated that this reverted schedule to swim the heats in the evening and the finals in the morning could trick swimmers. While we had six qualifiers with 4:09 from Saturday, in the final only Chase Kalisz could repeat that feat. He managed to rush ahead early and could keep his lead almost till the end. After his silver in Rio, Kalisz, double world champion in 2017, now managed to make it to the top. It was an American 1-2, a stylish way from the leading nation to kick off the meet indeed, as in the enormous fight for the minor spoils Jay Litherhead out-touched Australia’s Brendon Smith by 0.1sec for the silver. Indeed, the second and the fifth was separated by 0.31sec, so it was one of the closest medley finals, though not the fastest.

"It is my lifelong dream. It is what everyone dreams of in the sport. I do feel like I let the US down in 2016, even though I swam faster there. The US has a proud legacy in the 400m individual medley. This was my redemption story” said Kalisz.

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