Rohan Taylor stopped talking momentarily and looked into the middle distance, where a television screen beamed out a bit more green and gold than you’d normally see in an Olympic pool. The women’s 4x100m medley relay team had jumped in fully clothed in their Australian tracksuits, and were giggling and generally frolicking about as spectators filed out of La Defense Arena for the final time. Mollie O’Callaghan hopped out and poured water out of one of her sodden shoes before putting it back on.
The Dolphins head coach clocked the celebrations and laughed, then got back to the business of summarising Australia’s Olympics campaign. You might have assumed the impromptu pool party was celebrating medley relay gold medal. In fact, it was a silver.
The race was dead last on the program, and promised to separate the dead heat between Australia and the United States. Australia led the medal count with seven golds heading into the final day, and had hoped to finish ahead of their biggest rivals for the first time since Melbourne 1956. It took a 1500m world record from Bobby Finke to level the ledger, and then another world record in the women’s medley relay to win the tie-breaker and ensure the Americans continued their streak atop the standings that dates back to Barcelona 1992.
“We ended up one gold short of equalling the US,” Taylor said. “We all know the narrative around that, but we do see them as the standard-bearers and, for us, we just want to be as close as we.