Paris Olympics 2024: Ariarne Titmus beats Canadian Summer McIntosh to gold in epic 4x100m final

It will go down as one of Australia’s most famous Olympic moments, but Ariarne Titmus believes she wasn’t even at her best in her dominant gold-medal 100m freestyle swim.

Titmus has also conceded she felt the weight of being the hunted, after winning two golds as a 20-year-old first-timer in Tokyo, and also worried her legs would go late in her bid to hold off Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh.

Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team also won a fourth-straight gold medal, which made Emma McKeon the country’s most decorated Olympian, going clear of Ian Thorpe with six golds.

Elijah Winnington and the 4x100m men’s team — spearheaded by Kyle Chalmers — both claimed silver.

The glittering night in the pool made for Australia’s greatest-ever opening day of a Games with five medals placing it atop the tally ahead of China and the USA.

Titmus become just the third Australian woman, after Shirley Strickland and Dawn Fraser to defend an Olympic title in an individual event when she won the race dubbed the biggest of this century ahead of McIntosh and great American rival Katie Ledecky.

The Aussie bullet led out of the blocks and all the way home, but the threat came not from the legendary Ledecky, but 17-year-old McIntosh, who finished with silver.

The Australian finished well behind the world record time, but had pulled away from her rivals early in the final lap. She finished four tenths of a second ahead of McIntosh.

The gold medal is Australia’s second of the Games — after cyclist Grace Brown — and its second in the pool on the opening night.

Titmus said on pool deck the swim wasn’t her best, but knew that wasn’t important.

“The Olympics is about getting your hand on the wall first, it’s not about swimming as fast as you can,” she said after the race.

“Bit off my best, but I’m forever a back-to-back Olympic champion, which is pretty cool.”

It is Titmus’ third gold medal and fifth medal overall. She is just the second woman and first since 1928 to go back-to-back in this event.

That meant she was the hunted, three years after her bid to hunt down Ledecky shot her into Australian Olympic stardom in Japan.

“Last time not being an Olympic gold medallist, it’s another thing to come in and try and defend your title and it’s a big monkey on your back and I felt it this week,” Titmus said.

“I just wanted to come out and have fun. The crowd here is electric.”

Titmus was so relaxed pre-race she even lined up on Ledecky’s blocks before the race and the American had to move her out of the way in the moments before the jump.

Ledecky was left behind even compatriot Paige Madden until the final laps, making only a fleeting push towards her Australian rival in the final stages.

Fellow Australian Jamie Perkins finished eighth.

“I started to fade a little bit I think, my legs started to go, but just ‘hold on, leave everything out there’ and then it was good to know I’d done everything I could regardless,” Titmus said.

Australia’s unstoppable relay team fell short of their own world record, but became Olympic record holders, leading at every change to win once again ahead of USA and China.

Mollie O’Callaghan had to recover a slow start in her second 50m and the Aussies’ most nervous moment came with rivals hot on the heels of McKeon in the third leg.

But Meg Harris, who was scintillating in Saturday night’s heat, powered them home. It also completes the comeback of Shayna Jack, who missed the Tokyo Olympics over a positive doping test she continues to plead her innocence of.

Jack declared post-race “we are phenomenal”, while McKeon said “everyone wants to be” on the incredibly successful team.

“To be part of this four-by-one, it’s extremely hard,” McKeon said.

“I feel really honoured to be a part of it . . . I just really wanted to be a part of this team tonight”.

Kai Taylor, in his first Olympic final, and what Thorpe described as “probably the best relay swim I have ever seen from Kyle Chalmers” helped them to an unexpected medal in the 4x100m free behind Caleb Dressel’s USA.

Taylor is the son of swimming champion and two-time medallist at Barcelona 1992, Hayley Lewis.

Winnington claimed Australia’s second medal of the Paris Games, a silver in the men’s 400m freestyle in the first swimming final.

German favourite Lukas Maertens held off a late push from Winnington, bronze medallist Kim Woo-min and fellow Australian Sam Short to take home gold.

Winnington was prominent out of the blocks, but Maertens carried a comfortable lead through all but the final lap.

The silver is the Queenslander’s maiden silver medal after a disappointing first campaign at Tokyo three years ago.

McKeon qualified sixth fastest in the 100m butterfly out of a strong semifinal. The first semi was dominated by American Gretchen Walsh.

West Australian swimmer Josh Yong missed out on the final of the 100-metre breaststroke final.