2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Day 8 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
On the last night of the swimming competition at the 2016 Olympic Games, Belarusian sprinter Aliaksandra Herasimenia took home the bronze in the women’s 50m freestyle event. In an unbelievably close race, where the top 3 finishers were separated by just .04 of a second in total, Herasimenia charged to the wall in a time of 24.11 to finish behind gold medal winner Pernille Blume (DEN, 24.07) and Simone Manuel (USA, 24.09).
This is Herasimenia’s second Olympic medal in this event, as she nabbed silver in 2012. Her time four years ago stood as the national record, resting at 24.28 for the past 4 years. Tonight she shaved another .17 off of that mark to lower the record officially to 24.11 with her bronze medal-winning performance. Herasimenia also holds the Belarusian national records in the 100m freestyle, 50/100m backstroke and 50/100m butterfly.
In comparison to her experience from 2012, of tonight’s race Herasimenia said, “This medal was a lot harder to get than the previous one. It is not more valuable because, of course, I wanted the gold. I was so close, so close. It wasn’t even about who was faster or stronger, but who had more luck.”
“I don’t understand what this means yet. I might fully grasp the significance of this in days, weeks, maybe even a month.”
Comparing the actual race between London and Rio, Herasimenia said, “It was a lot harder than in London, especially given my unsuccessful earlier races here. It was hard to get my strength and thoughts in place, but this was the last distance, the last swim.”