Michael Phelps put a mirror in front of his successors shortly after the swimming competitions at the Olympics in Paris. He held the American swimming squad at the dagger’s end for their inability to produce magic in the pool. “I think, a lot of the things, that we’ve done as a country for so long the other people are catching up. They are doing the same thing,” he minutely mentioned. The Flying Fish had reasons to vent his disappointment. 

Despite coming at the top of the medal tally in the swimming events in Paris, the Katie Ledecky and Nic Fink-led team failed to win most of the individual events, while the nemesis Australian squad did not obliterate the expectation. They went smoothly where Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown starred. However, as per Gretchen Walsh, things are not that bad. Her opinion is that the swimmers in Stars and Stripes were not unnoticed during the Paris Olympics against the top opponent. Rather, the UVA swimmer feels elated by her performance against the Dolphins on her first Olympic outing. 

Gretchen Walsh terms her Paris Olympics mission successful 

At the Paris Olympics, Gretchen Walsh had a formidable run. She competed in six events and took four medals out of those. Not only that, in the women’s 100m butterfly event, she managed to break the Olympic record in the semifinal. But her emotions remained short-lived. On the same day, she had to appear against the Australian swimmers in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay final. The experience stood to be ‘nerve-wrecking’ for her as the Dolphins’ squad included names like Mollie O’Callaghan, Emma McKeon (the most decorated Australian swimmer), Meg Harris, and Shayna Jack. The names had evoked such a feeling in Gretchen’s mind that, in her conversation with SwimOutlet, the 21-year-old swimmer said, “I do enjoy a lot of the Australian swimmers. So it’s cool to race them and see them do their thing.” The event ended with a nail-biting performance.

Ultimately, the Australian bunch claimed the title. Still, the Gretchen Walsh-starred American squad punched above its weight, almost chasing the Dolphins neck-to-neck to the finishing line. Shedding light on that, she conceded, “I was really happy about our performance.” Ultimately, the team took the silver medal, finishing the race in 3:30.20 minutes. The achievement felt sweeter for another reason. 

Despite her Olympic record performance on the same day in the individual event, Walsh did not show sluggishness in the relay final. Furthermore, she had Torri Huske with her, who had also competed in the 100m butterfly semifinal before coming to the relay event. So the NCAA champion didn’t feel down about losing the gold to the archrival. Instead, she cherished the concerted effort. 

The emotion finally led her to say, “We were able to wear that silver medal with a lot of pride because we had gotten the [American] record and I feel like we all had really good splits for ourselves.” Personally, her split came from a position where, in the last season, Gretchen couldn’t generate a high pace in the event. But on July 28, she took the responsibility, shedding her inexperience in contesting at the Olympics. Did the rivalry against the Australian swimmers fuel her up to crack the hard job? Michael Phelps had already shared a few things before the Paris Olympics. 

Michael Phelps shared a few motivating lines just months ago 

At the Paris Olympics, Cate Campbell couldn’t cut into the Australian swimming team. However, last year at the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships, she bore the mantle of the yellow jersey. And edging out the rival squad based on the number of gold medals claimed at the contest, she extended the battle with a few fireballs for the rival American team. 

The senior among the much-known Campbell sisters called out the USA team as “sore losers.” She went further with a verbal attack: “It is just so much sweeter beating America.” Michael Phelps could not miss Cate Campbell’s comment. He did not tangle himself in a heated argument. Instead, he calmly shared, “I appreciate your words, Cate. Somebody said that to me, I would lose it. I would literally make them eat every word they just said about me.” Later, the most decorated swimmer reminded the viewers of his contest with Ian Thorpe and Chad le Clos, where he used to win most of the pool battles. In the end, Phelps wanted the American swimming squad to boil over such comments hurled by the nemesis.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Golf – Men’s Round 1 – Le Golf National, Guyancourt, France – August 01, 2024. Former swimmer and record Olympic medallist Michael Phelps is seen during round one. REUTERS/Matthew Childs“If you see what I just saw, I would watch that thing every single day,” Michael Phelps specifically mentioned. Coming to the Paris Olympics, both teams looked to be engaged in the war of maintaining the reign on the water. The Australian camp took several as Cameron McEvoy pushed Caeleb Dressel from the podium of the 50m free final. Similarly, Kaylee McKeown held her control over the 100m backstroke event, edging out Regan Smith. But Gretchen Walsh feels the achievement in the women’s 4x100m relay couldn’t be better than that. Ultimately, it was their fight against fate that erased several blockades. A share of credit goes to those lines from the swimming goat.