As usual, the US team topped the medal charts at the end of the swimming meet which, for the first time, saw 35 finals contested, the highest number ever in Olympic history. Though more titles were on offer, the Americans were not as overwhelming as in London and Rio where they had claimed 16 titles apiece. Now they got 11 while Australia came up with an all-time best performance with 20 medals including 9 golds. Great Britain and China are also on the rise. Caeleb Dressel (USA) and Emma McKeon (AUS) were the top medal individual collectors over the nine days which saw a total of 6 world and 33 Olympic records.
London, Rio: Team USA in full command
The last time the Aussies were kind of close to the US team happened in Beijing 2008 when the total count stood at 31-20 though the Americans were much better in the title-hunt (12-6), fuelled by a peaking Michael Phelps’ historical 8-gold haul. Then the gap really opened up between the US and the rest of the world.
In London 2012 the Americans captured 31 medals again but this time their gold count reached 16. China was the closest to them with 5, followed by France with 4 why the Aussies went through some disappointment, bringing home a single title (though 15 medals in total). The Brits had high hopes at home but a silver and two bronze made them cry rather.
Team USA was in full command in Rio 2016, this time with 33 medals, again with 16 gold. Australia bounced back a bit with 10 medals (3-4-3) and Hungary was a surprise third in the charts, thanks to Katinka Hosszu’s march (3-2-2). Still, the title count was never so lopsided – 16 for the US, while the next two in the row had 3 apiece.
Australia is back on track, challenging the Americans
That changed kind of dramatically for Tokyo in five years. The US held on in terms of total medals, claimed 30 but the title-race was much more balanced, 11-9 versus the Australians. The Dolphins’ development is quite significant: 1-6-3 in London, 3-4-3 in Rio and 9-3-8 here – doubled the number of their total and tripled their wins, a fantastic improvement.
It was their females who were absolutely outstanding. While the US dominated the men’s part (8 titles out of 17), the Aussie super-ladies won 8 titles out of the 9 their nation took here (the US had 3). Indeed, these two superpowers possessed almost 50% of the total medals, 50 out of 105 (interestingly, there were no shared medals in Tokyo).
The Brits are also on the rise – after their poor home appearance in 2012 (0-1-2), they already came up with 1-5-0 in Rio, only to reach unprecedented heights here with 8 medals, 4 of them gold (4-3-1). In their camp, the men were flying high: 7 of the 8 podiums came from them and a gold in the mixed medley.
China had another fine run despite losing world champion Sun Yang due to his doping ban – though they are still a bit far from their brilliant outing in London (5-2-3), but had more wins than in Rio (3-2-1 vs 1-2-3) to finish 4th in the ranks. Mostly their females shone (5 medals) but Wang Shun’s brilliant win in the men’s 200m IM was one of the highlights of the tourney. The ROC is fifth, solely with men’s medals (2-2-1) while host Japan had some ups and downs: nine years ago they had 11 medals but no gold (0-3-8), in Rio they had a very promising meet (2-2-3, 7 in total) but five years later their male medley aces were ‘below-par’ so Yui Ohashi saved the meet for them with her fantastic IM double which put Japan to the 6th place in the ranks (2-1-0).
In terms of total medals, Canada and Italy enjoyed some great moments, both captured 6, though the Italians remained without a title this time (0-2-4 – still a big jump from London where they left the pool empty-handed), while Canada, relying on only their fantastic female stars, finished with 1-3-2. Hungary had a significant drop from Rio (3-2-2), only Kristof Milak stood on the podium but at least he did it twice in the fly events (gold and silver) – and we may mention France here which landed only a silver in Tokyo (on the last day, thanks to Florent Manaudou in the men’s dash), nine years after finishing with 4-2-1 in London.
Altogether 10 nations could celebrate champions in the pool, this number stood 13 in Rio and in Beijing but only 8 in London. The number of countries appearing on the medal table reached the same height as in Beijing (21), compared to the narrower circles we saw in London (17) and Rio (18).
The multi-medal winning heroes
As usual, this edition of the Games produced its heroes who produced multi-medal winning performances. After four fantastic Olympics with loads of outstanding swims and stories, the Tokyo swimming meet had Michael Phelps only in the stands, commenting for US broadcaster NBC. Still, America didn’t leave us without a new star to watch: Caeleb Dressel followed MP’s footsteps by becoming the fifth swimmer ever to win five titles in a single edition (something was very much in the cards after his 7-title runs at the 2017 and 2019 Worlds).
By golden standard, he was the best in Rio (three individual titles and two in relays) but Aussie Emma McKeon outdid him in terms of total number of medals as she earned seven (only the second athlete ever in any sport in a single edition, after 1956), four golds and three silvers (in three individual and four relay events).
We had five more athletes with 4 medals each. Four females, starting with Aussie backstroker Kaylee McKeon who had three titles and a bronze medal (two individual wins, the other two are from relays). US legend Katie Ledecky captured three individual medals, two of them gold (plus two silver), which also put her atop in the all-time ranks as the only female swimmers with six individual Olympic victories.
China’s Yufei Zhang is the next in line (2-2-0, one individual gold), followed the other Aussie great Ariarne Titmus, the first to beat Katie Ledecky in an Olympic final (in the 400m free), with 2-1-1 though her two golds and silver were bagged in individual finals. If we only consider individual events, Titmus is the best with 2-1-0 (McKeon is 2-0-1) among the women and only Dressel is better than her (3-0-0) all in all. The only male competitor with 4 medals is GB’s Duncan Scott with a gold and three silver medals (two individual events and two relays, the win came in the 4x200m).
Two more athletes should be highlighted here who achieved great individual doubles besides the ones mentioned already: Bob Finke (USA) in the men’s 800-1500m free and ROC’s Evgeny Rylov in the men’s 100-200m back.
6 new WRs, 33 Olympic records
As the good old saying goes, the Games are about winning and not breaking records – though world record swims has always been an essential part of the Olympic bonanza. Of course, this time it was a challenging task even for the greatest ones as swimming the finals in the morning will never be an all-time favourite among the athletes. (Beijing, also with morning finals, may not be picked for comparison as that event marked the start of the shiny suit era.)
The pandemic also left its mark on the preparations, so it was not surprising that only two individual global marks were bettered in Tokyo, though both happened during the golden fights in the morning. Tatjana Schoenmaker (RSA) brought down the women’s 200m breast WR (2:18.95) and Caeleb Dressel set the only individual male WR in the 100m fly (49.45).
Four more records were broken in the relays – so altogether 6 in Tokyo: both in the women’s free relays, by Australia in the 4x100m and by China in the 4x200m. The Brits beat the previous mark in the mixed medley while the US quartet smashed one of the remaining ‘shiny’ records from Rome 2009 when they set a new one in the men’s medley. Just for comparison: London celebrated 9 WRs (8 individual, 1 relay), Rio did 8 (6+2). Check the WRs for Men and Women.
However, there is an indicator which is a fantastic demonstration of the quality of this Olympic meet. Despite having this event in the shadow of the pandemic and having the finals in the morning, the top swimmers arrived at Tokyo in the best shape possible and thanks to that, the number of Olympic records hit a never-seen height of 33. This proves that we’ve just seen the fastest Olympics in swimming history. Check the ORs for Men and Women.
Continental records also fell over the nine days: we witnessed 5 African, 4 American, 13 Asian, 7 European and 10 Oceanian records, 39 altogether.
After the well-deserved vacations, the athletes can return to the pools and start their respective preparations since the next big FINA events are almost in the corner: the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) are due on 16-22 December in Abu-Dhabi (UAE) while the long-course meet of the 2022 FINA World Championships is scheduled for 22-29 May in Fukuoka (JPN). And of course, the next Olympics are closer than usual: only in three years time in Paris (FRA)!