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 1 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
It was a historic women’s 100m freestyle in Rio on Thursday night, as American Simone Manuel and Canadian Penny Oleksiak tied for the gold medal. Watch the action unfold in the video linked below, then read through our analysis to try to comprehend what just happened.
Women’s 100 Freestyle Final Race Video (U.S.)
As originally reported by Mitch Bowmile:
WOMEN’S 100M FREESTYLE FINAL
Start List: click here
Top Seed: 52.71 – Cate Campbell – Australia
World Record: 52.06 (2016) – Cate Campbell – Australia
JR World Record: 52.72 – Penny Oleksiak – Canada
Olympic Record: 52.71 (2016) – Cate Campbell – Australia
2012 Olympic Champion: 53.00 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo – Netherlands
In one of the most unexpected results of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games both Simone Manuel of the United States and Penny Oleksiak of Canada both touched the wall in a dead heat for gold.
Cate Campbell of Australia was out fast, turning under world record pace at the 50-meter mark as the entire field turned for home tightly bunched behind her. Oleksiak turned seventh at the 50, well behind but began to charge out in front with Manuel of the United States.
Also with the front pack was Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. With 25-meters to go Oleksiak and Manuel began to move forward as Manuel was clearly in the lead. With a huge last 15-meters, Oleksiak began to surge forward, touching the wall simultaneously with Manuel in 52.70.
Oleksiak and Manuel both broke the Olympic record, and Oleksiak broke her own world junior record and Canadian record. Oleksiak’s gold also makes her the first Canadian swimmer to ever win four medals at one Olympic Games.
Sjostrom finished third in 52.99. Campbell faded to sixth in 53.24.
Excellent job Simone!
Dan, your comment on the post Aigues was right on the money. Thank you for that.
Aigues, let me try to summarize my thoughts one more time. We witnessed a RACE. The name of the game is “who can get from here to there the fastest?” Last night Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 freestyle, and they beat the world-record holder while doing it. A hundred years from now, they will be the one and only 2016 Olympic champions in that event. Nobody will remember the time, although it was an Olympic record. True, Cate Campbell is a fantastic swimmer – she holds the current world record. That’s awesome and it made her… Read more »
From the stands it was clearly to be seen that Cate moved before the signal… she should have been disqualified. Maybe that played a part in her bad race afterwards… she surely knew she moved. Coaches in the coaches stand all saw it…
Memo to Aigues…
What a bunch of BS you dished out in your posts after the most shocking finish to a women’s Olympic 100 freestyle that I can ever recall. The Aussie world record-holder went out WAY too fast and the USA and the Canadian girls chased her down and won the gold medal. That’s what it’s all about! Why swim (or run) Olympic races if unexpected finishes aren’t allowed because they disturb your tidy little mental fantasy of how things ought to be. This was like the USA beating the Soviet Union in ice hockey way back when. If you watched it you’ve never forgotten it! Achievements like these are breathtaking because of their incredible unpredictability. When we’re… Read more »
Seriously, a surprising result is not necessarily an amazing result, is it so hard to understand, or is it just the fact that one of this surprise is american that blocks you?
The world record holder lose her mind due to pressure and or anything else and posts an awful time (52.24… seriously?). The defending world champion swims 0.5s slower than her PB/trial time, the defending olympic champion slower than her best, the double world silver medallist slower, the only other woman to have broken 53: totally out of shape. If Oleksiak and Manuel had won it in 52.3, worldclass performances, outswimming the real C1 or at least C2/SS in 52.5, it would still be sad for C1 because… Read more »
U better comment cycling or volley Ball or Rowing – your comments are absolutely non sense – full of frustration and disbelief . Get over it or just go to sleep dude .
What I say is true for cycling, volley-ball or rowing too. Surprising result does not mean great performance.
It really seems you would all be happy with Manuel winning in 54 low.
The C1 and C2 are incredible talents and nothing can be taken away from the duo. At the biggest stage they didn’t perform in the 100 free. Does that make them disappointments? No….they are the fastest duo sprinters in history.
You don’t need to justify to me how great they are but show some humility to the champions who won. Take a page out of Nathan Adrian book. He lost the 100 free to Chalmers and didn’t go a best time but praise the young kid for the winning. I have so much respect for Nathan for doing that.
I have a huge respect for Oleksiak and Manuel, they swam great PBs, posted a time that would have gave them bronze or silver in the last world championships – a strong achievement given their entry times, and are obviously talented. I’m just disappointed by the final itself, maybe one of the 2-3 richest in talented swimmers during the games… and yet the winning time would have not made the cut at Australian championships.
Hard to argue that the winners put up underwhelming times when they broke the Olympic record. I understand that some have been faster in various lower-pressure race scenarios, but dealing with the pressure is one of the great challenges of the Olympics! There’s nothing else like it, including World Championships. Bottom line: Clock don’t lie.
Olympic record can be an argument, but Olympic record is not world record, it’s not even a national record, and olympic games are not an alternative universe where everything happenning before and after must be forgotten. Olympic records were slow in many womens race before Rio, so it doesn’t change my point of view: this was really not as fast as I expected and I’m quite disappointed with both 100 free races. I repeat that it’s just a point of view based on the reasons why I love to watch swimming races.
Excellent post.
unbelievable…..just a miracle in the cube…..
Easy tiger. Correction: Oleksiak is the first Canadian swimmer to win four MEDALS at the Olympics (not four golds).
that whole scene was just utter chaos… amazing. both girls took a bit to realize they’d won, it took the announcers a beat or two to even comprehend the situation… utterly fantastic. wow.
What s wrong with the Aussies? (Seeboehm, Campbell, Macevoy, Larkin…)