Tuesday, July 27, 2021
A mega finish to the Olympic coup
17-year-old swims to the gold sensation
What a spectacular race for Lydia Jacoby: After half of the distance over 100 meters, the 17-year-old is still in third place and is already a little behind the two top favorites. But then the young swimmer from Alaska turns up impressively.
The only 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby from Alaska could hardly believe her gold triumph over 100 meters chest. When she looked at the scoreboard in the Tokyo Aquatics Center, her eyes and mouth opened wide in disbelief, the defeated world record holder Lilly King congratulated her compatriot with a hug. “It was crazy,” said Jacoby – the first Alaskan female swimmer on a US Olympic swimming team. “A lot of big-name swimmers come from big powerhouse clubs, but coming from a small club and a state with such a small population shows that you can do it no matter where you’re from,” she said.
After the first run, Jacoby was still in third place. Everything looked like a duel between the favorites King (she won bronze) and Tatjana Schoenmake Schoenmaker from South Africa (she won silver). But with a spectacular finish, the 17-year-old pulled in, pulled past and built up a small lead that she was able to defend until the end.
The first title of the day had previously been secured by the British Tom Dean in the 200 meter freestyle. The 21-year-old prevailed over one of Paul Biedermann’s two long-track world record courses just ahead of his compatriot Duncan Scott. The Australian Kaylee McKeown won over 100 meters back in an Olympic record time of 57.47 seconds. She prevailed over the Canadian world champion Kylie Masse and the American Regan Smith. McKeown missed her own world record by just two hundredths of a second. For the first time since 1992, no US swimmer won the Olympic Games on the track. In the men’s category, the Russian Evgeny Rylow won ahead of Kliment Kolesnikow, who is also from Russia.
US superstar Katie Ledecky suffered another defeat. After the five-time Olympic champion over 400 meters freestyle lost gold to her Australian challenger Ariarne Titmus, she was also slower in the semifinals over half the distance.
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