Summer Olympics

China pulled off a thrilling upset in the women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay, winning the gold medal over the heavy favorites from Australia.

The United States won silver thanks to a massive rally by team anchor Katie Ledecky as the Australians settled for bronze. Amazingly, all three countries shattered the previous world record of 7:41.50, held by the Australians. China finished the medal race in 7:40.33.

Here's a look at the full results:

Women's 4x200M Freestyle Relay Final Results

1. China (Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Zhang Yufei, Li Bingjie): 7:40.33

2. USA (Allison Schmitt, Paige Madden, Kathryn McLaughlin, Katie Ledecky): 7:40.73

3. Australia (Ariarne Titmus, Emma McKeon, Madison Wilson, Leah Neale): 7:41.29

4. Canada (Summer McIntosh, Rebecca Smith, Kayla Sanchez, Penny Oleksiak): 7:43.77

5. Russian Olympic Committee (Anna Egorova, Valeriia Salamatina, Veronika Andrusenko, Anastasia Guzhenkova): 7:52.15

6. Germany (Isabel Gose, Leonie Marlen Kullmann, Marie Pietruschka, Annika Bruhn): 7:53.89

7. Hungary (Zsuzsanna Jakabos, Laura Veres, Ajna Kesely, Boglarka Kapas): 7:56.62

8. France (Charlotte Bonnet, Assia Touati, Lucile Tessariol, Margaux Fabre): 7:58.15

Full results available via Olympics.com

China led wire-to-wire, fighting off repeated attempts by Australia to get out in front. That wouldn't happen.

Instead, it was the United States making an incredible charge on the last leg when Ledecky entered the pool. After failing to medal in the individual 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky put together a tremendous split of 1:53.76—nearly two seconds off her time in the individual Wednesday—which, along with Katie McLaughlin's split of 1:55.38, helped the U.S. move from fourth place to second.

Just about every country that competed in the final set about overachieving Thursday as one of the overall fastest relays of the Olympic Games concluded in less than eight minutes.

Perhaps with another length, the United States is able to complete the comeback. As it stands, the silver medal will go down as one of the more impressive collected by USA Swimming during the Games.

A complete and total team effort has the Americans back on the podium once again.

Zhang Yufei set an Olympic record en route to gold at the women's 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:03.86 from Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Zhang, who also won silver at the 100-meter butterfly in the Tokyo Olympics, dominated the field en route to her first-ever gold on the world stage.

A pair of Americans took silver and bronze in Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger, respectively.

Here's a look at the official results from the eight-swimmer field.

Results

1. Zhang Yufei (China): 2:03.86

2. Regan Smith (United States): 2:05.30

3. Hali Flickinger (United States): 2:05.65

4. Boglarka Kapas (Hungary): 2:06.53

5. Svetlana Chimrova (Russian Olympic Committee): 2:07.70

6. Liyan Yu (China): 2:07.85

7. Alys Margaret Thomas (Great Britain): 2:07.90

8. Brianna Throssell (Australia): 2:09.48

Zhang's blazing time was the fastest recorded in the race in 12 years, per ESPN:

Chinese swimmer Liu Zige owns the fastest-ever time in the race when she registered a mark of 2:01.81 in 2009 at the Chinese National Games.

Zhang added to an already impressive resume that includes one silver and four bronze medals in World Championship events.

Her win also gave China its 13th first-place finish at this year's Games, which tied Japan for the gold medal lead at the time of her fantastic performance.

As for the runners-up on the podium, Smith made up some ground in the final 50 meters to surpass Flickinger. She previously won bronze at the 100-meter backstroke in this year's Olympic Games.

Flickinger also owns a bronze medal in Tokyo, earning third in the 400-meter medley.

Caeleb Dressel did it. And he did it in style.

The United States swimmer won the gold medal in the men's 100-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, setting an Olympic record (47.02) in the process. He just edged out the event's gold medalist at the Rio Games in 2016, Australian's Kyle Chalmers (47:08), who took silver.

The Russian Olympic Committee's Kliment Kolesnikov (47.44), one of the favorites heading into the event, earned bronze.

It was Dressel's second gold of the Tokyo Games, as he also stood atop the podium after the United States won the 4x100-meter freestyle relay alongside Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker and Zach Apple. It was his fourth gold overall, as he won two relay golds at the 2016 Olympics.

He was emotional after Thursday's win.

"I don't know if it's just set in yet. Right now I'm just kinda hurting," he said on the NBC broadcast after the race, between deep breaths. "But it's a really tough year. It's really hard. So to have the results show how—I mean, it really came together, so I'm happy."

Dressel swam his race, getting off to an incredibly fast start with an 0.60-second reaction time out of the blocks. His race strategy was clear: Catch me if you can.

Chalmers came close but couldn't quite catch the United States' dynamo, who joined impressive company with the win:

Dressel has a busy Olympics scheduled, with the 100-meter butterfly, mixed medley relay, 50-meter freestyle and men's medley relay yet to come. But he's already made his mark in Tokyo.

Team USA swimmer Bobby Finke won the Olympic Games' first-ever men's 800-meter freestyle final with a time of 7:41.87.

Finke's fantastic turn and charge in the final 50 meters propelled him to gold over Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, who led for much of the race. CBS Sports showcased just how much ground Finke made up.

Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk earned the bronze at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. The official results from the eight-swimmer field can be found below.

Results

1. Robert Finke (United States): 7:41.87

2. Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy): 7.42:11

3. Mykhailo Romanchuk (Ukraine): 7:42.33

4. Florian Wellbrock (Germany): 7:42.68

5. Jack McLoughlin (Australia): 7:45.00

6. Serhii Frolov (Ukraine): 7:45.11

7. Felix Auboeck (Germany): 7:49.14

8. Guilherme Costa (Brazil): 7:53.31

Results via Olympics website.

The 1904 Summer Olympics featured a race of a similar length in the 880-yard freestyle (804.672 meters), but this was the first time a men's 800-meter freestyle final took place.

Finke will forever be the first winner in this Olympic event, and he impressed numerous onlookers with his phenomenal finish after entering the final 50 meters in fourth.

The New York Times broke down Finke and the rest of the swimmers' paces and paths:

The 21-year-old Finke, who swims for the University of Florida, won his first-ever medal on the world stage.

He'll look for his second gold medal when he competes in the Tokyo Olympics' 1,500-meter freestyle. The heats for that event are set for Friday, with the final occurring Sunday.

Australia's Izaac Stubblety-Cook made a late push in the men's 200-meter breaststroke Thursday at the Tokyo Olympics, claiming the gold medal in the event.

Stubblety-Cook (2:06.38) caught and passed the Netherlands' Arno Kamminga (2:07.01) and Finland's Matti Mattsson (2:07.13) in the final lap. His time set a new Olympic record, with the Russian Olympic Committee's Anton Chupkov setting the world record (2:06.12) in 2019.

The United States' Nic Fink (2:07.93) finished fifth.

Chupkov (2:07.24)—who won a bronze medal in the event in 2016 and was one of the favorites this year—finished fourth, well off his world-record pace.

Stubblety-Cook's gold was Australia's seventh of the Tokyo Games and 17th medal overall. The United States currently holds the most medals overall with 32 (12 golds), while Japan has claimed the most golds with 13 (22 overall).

It was a fantastic race from Stubblety-Cook, who kept himself in contention before a blistering 25 meters to close the race.

Cook swam a 2:07:00 at the Sydney Open in June before posting a blistering 2:06.28 at the Australian Olympic Trials.

"Sydney was quite a bit of a confidence boost, going 2:07 and going the same back-end as Chupkov—I started thinking, 'If I've got more rest I can go out a bit quicker and have that speed a bit easier,'" he told reporters at those trials. "It's exciting but I've just got to take it on my stride and keep on the process."

He did just that Thursday. And now he's an Olympic record-holder and gold medalist.

Great Britain easily captured the gold medal during the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday as the United States failed to reach the podium.

Tom Dean, James Guy, Matthew Richards and Scott Duncan combined for a 6:58.58 finish, setting a European record and coming from behind to win by nearly three-and-a-half seconds.

A day after Dean won the 200-meter freestyle final, he got back in the pool for another 200 meters and helped the favorites easily mop up the rest of the world.

Men's 4x200M Freestyle Relay Final

1. Great Britain (Tom Dean, James Guy, Matthew Richards, Duncan Scott): 6:58.58

2. Russian Olympic Committee (Martin Malyutin, Ivan Girev, Evgeny Rylov, Mikhail Dovgalyuk): 7:01.81

3. Australia (Alexander Graham, Kyle Chalmers, Zac Incerti, Thomas Neill): 7:01.84

4. United States (Kieran Smith, Drew Kibler, Zach Apple, Townley Haas): 7:02.43

5. Italy (Stefano Ballo, Matteo Ciampi, Filippo Megli, Stefano di Cola): 7:03.24

6. Switzerland (Antonio Djakovic, Nils Liess, Noe Ponti, Roman Mityukov): 7:06.12

7. Germany (Lukas Martens, Poul Zellmann, Bennet Henning Muhlleitner, Jacob Heidtmann): 7:06.51

8. Brazil (Fernando Scheffer, Murilo Setin Sartori, Breno Correia, Luiz Altamir Melo): 7:08.22

Results via official Olympics website

The United States missed out on a bronze medal by less than a second after previously dominating the event over the last four Olympic games.

On the NBC prime-time broadcast, U.S. Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps said the Americans were at a disadvantage without Caeleb Dressel in the relay. Dressel easily won his 100-meter freestyle semifinal just over an hour before the 4x200.

Each member of the GBR team swam his leg of the relay in 1:45.72 or faster with Scott, serving as the anchor, putting together a team-best 1:43.45 to capture first place.

The Americans still hold the Olympic record in the 4x200 thanks to a time of 6:58.56 at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but it's clear the United States relay club isn't near the level of past teams.

Katie Ledecky is once again the undisputed best long-distance swimmer in the world. 

In the first-ever women's 1500-meter freestyle at the Olympic Games, Ledecky entered as the presumptive favorite and easily blew away the field, finishing 4.07 seconds ahead of U.S. teammate Erica Sullivan—who made a dramatic comeback to claim the silver medal.

Women's 1,500m Freestyle Final

1. Katie Ledecky (USA): 15:37.34

2. Erica Sullivan (USA): 15:41.41

3. Sarah Kohler (Germany): 15:42.91

4. Jianjiahe Wang (China): 15:46.37

5. Simona Quadarella (Italy): 15:53.97

6. Kiah Melverton (Australia): 16:00.36

7. Anastasiia Kirpichnikova (Russian Olympic Committee): 16:00.38

8. Maddy Gough (Australia): 16:05.81

Results via official Olympics website

Ledecky won the sixth gold medal of her Olympics career barely an hour after failing to medal in the 200m freestyle final. She is now two gold medals from tying Jenny Thompson (8) for the most all-time by an American woman. 

Sullivan, meanwhile, saved her absolute best for the final laps of the grueling 1500. After posting splits between 31.56 and 32.01 through the first 500 meters, the 20-year-old began to make her move, soaring from fifth place to second place in just 250 meters with splits hovering around 31.03 across her final laps. 

After calmly finishing first a few seconds earlier, Ledecky went wild as she looked up and saw Sullivan taking second right behind her. 

The United States won two medals, but Japan's Yui Ohashi captured the top prize in the women's 200-meter individual medley final at the 2021 Olympics. 

Ohashi, Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass finished in the top three spots during Tuesday's race. The win is Ohashi's second of these Games after the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday. 

Women's 200m Individual Medley Results

Gold: Yui Ohashi, Japan (2:08.52)

Silver: Alex Walsh, United States (2:08.65)

Bronze: Kate Douglass, United States (2:09.04)

4th: Abbie Wood, Great Britain (2:09.15)

5th: Yu Yiting, China (2:09.57)

6th: Sydney Pickrem, Canada (2:10.05)

7th: Katinka Hosszu, Hungary (2:12.38)

8th: Alicia Wilson, Great Britain (2:12.86)

Tuesday's race was a thriller, with Ohashi just sneaking by Walsh and Douglass in the final stretch. All three were running neck and neck for most of the final 50 meters. 

Walsh appeared to have a slight edge around the 25-meter mark, but Ohashi started to pick up steam to win her second gold medal in Tokyo. 

Ohashi has been building toward this moment for years, dating back to her gold medal win at the 2016 Asian Championships.

She followed that up by setting a Japanese record in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2017 World Championships with a time of 2:07.91, but that wasn't quite good enough to get past Hungary's Katinka Hosszu. 

Walsh and Douglass, both 19, had stellar Olympic debuts in this event. It's fitting that they would end up on the medal podium together. The University of Virginia teammates both won NCAA championships this year to help the program win its first-ever team title. 

Ohashi's margin of victory of 0.13 seconds is the smallest in Olympic history since the women's 200-meter individual medley was added in 1972. 

Walsh's silver medal is the best finish by an American woman in this event since Amanda Beard finished second in 2004. 

Carissa Moore of the United States and Italo Ferreira of Brazil took home surfing's top prizes in the sport's first-ever appearance at the Olympics.

Moore defeated South Africa's Bianca Buitendag 14.93 to 8.46 in the women's gold-medal match. Ferreira had no problems in his gold-medal match against Kanoa Igarashi, scoring an easy win, 15.14 to 6.60.

Women's Surfing Results

Gold: Carissa Moore (United States) def. Bianca Buitendag (South Africa), 14.93 to 8.46

Bronze: Amuro Tsuzuki (Japan) def. Caroline Marks (United States), 6.80 to 4.26

Men's Surfing Results

Gold: Italo Ferreira (Brazil) def. Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), 15.14 to 6.60

Bronze: Owen Wright (Australia) def. Gabriel Medina (Brazil), 11.97 to 11.77

The weather forecast led organizers to push the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals into one day. The medal matches were originally scheduled to be held Wednesday, but tropical storm Nepartak is expected to cause large rainfalls in the Tokyo area this week.

Despite some gloomy conditions early in the day, things started to clear up in time for the women's final.

A four-time champion on the ASP Women's World Tour, Moore further solidified her standing as the best surfer in the world with this performance.

"I feel super blessed, super fortunate. It's been an incredible experience," Moore told reporters after her win. "It's been a crazy couple of days, a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions just trying to figure out the break, find my rhythm, learning how to trust myself without my family here."

The defining move of Moore's run was a two-turn combo that garnered a score of 7.33 to put her over the top for gold.

Things were also emotional on the men's side when Ferreira clinched the first gold medal for his country with a brilliant run on the waves.

It wasn't entirely smooth sailing for Ferreira on his run. He had to make a board change after his preferred choice broke on the first wave he hit.

"I broke my good board on my first wave. That board gives me good speed, the other one is more slow," Ferreira said after his win. "It's super hard out there, but I knew that there was a lot of opportunities around."

Despite not being able to have the board he wanted for the entire run, Ferreira made his backup work with spectacular results.

The host nation was given plenty of reasons to celebrate surfing's Olympic debut. Amuro Tsuzuki beat out Caroline Marks for bronze on the women's side.

Igarashi came up short in his run against Ferreira, but the 23-year-old still walked away from the Games with a silver medal around his neck.

Aly Raisman praised her former United States women's national gymnastics teammate Simone Biles in the wake of her decision to remove herself from the team final at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health.

"It is so much pressure," Raisman told ESPN's Michele Steele. "It's the most pressure I've ever seen on a gymnast and maybe even Olympic athlete, and I can't imagine how hard it is for her.

"I'm very proud of Simone, and I can't imagine the bravery that it takes to just say, 'I'm not going to do it today.'"

Biles spoke with reporters after Team USA took the silver medal regarding her decision.

Many people praised Biles following her decision.

Biles is one of the most decorated and accomplished athletes in sports history, routinely dazzling fans with mind-bending moves and routines.

But Biles' decision was a stark reminder that she's human and must also look after herself in the wake of immense adversity and pressure to perform at a peak level.

"At the end of the day, we're human too," Biles said after withdrawing, per Will Graves of the Associated Press.

"So, we have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do."

Biles owns 25 gold medals on the world stage: four in the Olympics, 19 in the World Championships and two in the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup. She owns 34 world medals overall (25 gold, five silver, four bronze).