Sharon van Rouwendaal became the first swimmer to win two Olympic 10k titles when she claimed gold with a late charge in the River Seine.
Twenty-four women took to the river from Pont Alexandre III with the Netherlands athlete moving to the head of the field through the end of lap two ahead of Moesha Johnson of Australia and Italian pair Ginevra Taddeucci and Giulia Gabbrielleschi
Johnson went past Van Rouwendaal to lead at halfway with the pair making a break at the start of the fourth where they were joined by Taddeucci, the trio going through at the end of the fourth and fifth laps in that order.
The Australian led until Pont des Invalides when Van Rouwendaal moved past on the outside before sprinting down the finishing chute for victory in 2hrs 03mins 34.2secs.
Johnson was 5.5secs adrift in 2:03:39.7 for silver with Taddeucci third in 2:03:42.8 followed by reigning champion Ana Cunha (2:04:15.7) and Hungarian teenager Bettina Fabian (2:04:16.9).
Those present were witness to history as no other swimmer – male or female – has twice won the open water title but on Thursday morning Van Rouwendaal added gold to the crown she lifted at Rio 2016.
With silver at Tokyo 2021, she also became the first athlete to claim three medals with one more than Thomas Lurz of Germany who’d won silver at London 2012 and bronze four years earlier in Beijing.
On upgrading from silver to gold, she said: “I wanted to do it so I calculated if I had a medal and Ana Marcela (Cunha) didn’t get another gold that it’d be more impressive to have three medals.
“And I thought, ‘if I reclaim it, then I have three medals in a row, and then these girls have to do it in eight years to beat me.’ That takes a lot of dedication and pain.”
Van Rouwendaal experienced a difficult few months after her pet dog died earlier this year and revealed a tattoo of a paw-print on her right wrist.
“So I had a tattoo three days after the cremation and I said, ‘Let’s try it and I will swim for him with my whole heart’ – and I did it – I won for him,” she said.
Van Rouwendaal was described by Johnson, with whom she trains as part of Bernd Berkhahn’s group in Magdeburg, Germany, as “such a GOAT of the sport.”
The 30-year-old added another Olympic gold to her two world and three European titles and she said of her tactics late on: “Mo took over and she was the one doing the pace that no one could follow. I was in her feet and we did a great job from there. I think they were super happy with the medal but I really wanted that gold.
“Tactics-wise, I had a plan to jump over, go behind the bridge and then jump back, and then go against the wall and then to the finish. But the finish was really long… I was like ‘where is that line?’”
Taddeucci has had a medal-laden few months with 5k and team relay silvers at the European Aquatics Championships Belgrade 2024.
Thursday’s bronze was only her second individual 10k medal, coming two years after silver at the European Championships in Rome.
“I’m super-happy because this was totally unexpected,” she said. “In the fourth lap when I saw them both overhauling me, of course I knew that I had to go faster and to be in the middle because the currents were very strong, and so I needed to find the best condition.
“When I saw (Van Rouwendaal) ahead, and she was actually going for it, I thought, okay, Sharon is making the right choice. I need to go after her because I know that I would be able to follow her course.”