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regular-article-logo Monday, 23 December 2024

Tokyo Olympics: 17-year-old wins swimming gold for US

Lydia Jacoby wins women's 100m backstroke event, knocks off champion Lilly King

Our Bureau Published 27.07.21, 04:46 PM
Lydia Jacoby.

Lydia Jacoby. Twitter@FINA

17-year-old high schooler Lydia Jacoby gave the United States a victory in the women's 100-meter breaststroke, knocking off teammate and defending Olympic champion Lilly King. Jacoby was the first swimmer from the state ever to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team.

Now, she's heading back to Anchorage in Alaska with a gold medal, rallying to win in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds.

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South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed the silver in 1:05.22, while King gave the Americans another medal by taking the bronze in 1:05.54.

The American men have lost a backstroke race at the Olympic pool for the first time 1992.

Russian athletes swept the top two spots in the 100-metre back, with Evgeny Rylov claiming the gold medal in 51.98 seconds and teammate Kliment Kolesnikov taking the silver in 52.00. The defending Olympic champion, American Ryan Murphy, settled for the bronze in 52.19.

It was the first backstroke defeat for the U.S. men at the Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Games. They won 12 straight golds at the last six Olympics, including Murphy's sweep of the 100- and 200-meter backstroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

But the streak finally ended at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

(With inputs from AP)

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