Australia’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team have won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
The victory is Australia’s eighth gold medal of the Games.
The Dolphins’ team of Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus saluted in seven minutes 40.33 seconds.
The United States took silver and China claimed the bronze.
Queen Mary of Denmark – the Tasmania-born royal who is distantly related to Ariarne Titmus – was on hand to see the race and celebrated with them when they came to the stands to embrace friends and family.
Shortly before the Games began, Titmus revealed, ‘We’re actually cousins in a distant, roundabout sort of way.
‘One of dad’s cousins is married to Mary’s cousin, which is actually pretty funny considering the running joke that everyone born in Tasmania is somehow related!’
Mary also shared a warm embrace with O’Callaghan and took photos of the gold medallists, with Aussie swimming great Cate Campbell noting on Channel Nine’s coverage that all the usual royal protocols of curtsying and shaking hands went out the window in all the excitement.
Australia have won gold again in the swimming pool in the 4x200m women’s freestyle final
The quartet had a very famous fan in Queen Mary of Denmark – a distant relation of Ariarne Titmus – who celebrated with the gold medallists after the race (pictured)
Queen Mary shared a long hug with Titmus (left) and the pair were all smiles as the Aussies rushed to the stands to embrace their friends and loved ones
Ariarne Titmus brought the gold medal home as the Aussies smashed the Olympic record
O’Callaghan now has three golds in Paris – she featured in the victorious women’s 4x100m freestyle team and won the 200m freestyle – and now has five golds in her Olympic career.
Titmus, who last Saturday night won the 400m freestyle, has two golds in Paris and four gold medals in her Olympic career.
‘I had Moll [O’Callaghan] saying some stern words in my ear behind the block, but I’m really proud of this group,’ Titmus said after the win.
‘We’ve wanted this [for a long time]. I was disappointed with how I swam in Tokyo, I personally felt like I let the team down, so this was a bit of a personal vendetta for me to come back and really play my role in the team, but also do it for our country.’
The Aussies were beaten by winners China and the USA in Tokyo, coming in almost a second behind the Americans.
The relay victory is the first Olympic gold for Pallister, who is making her debut at the sporting showpiece and recovered from a bout of COVID-19 which forced her to withdraw from the 1500m freestyle earlier in the Games.
‘I bawled my eyes out. When I got COVID, I honestly thought I’d be out of that relay completely,’ Pallister said.
Pictured left to right: Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus salute the crowd as they take to the podium to receive their medals
Titmus said winning the race turned into a ‘personal vendetta’ for her after she felt she let the team down in the event at the Tokyo Games in 2021
Titmus is embraced by Brianna Throssell following the team’s victory in Paris
Throssell, who made her first national swim team a dozen years ago, is a dual Olympic gold medallist.
But she feels like a first-time winner, as her previous gold was for a heat swim in Australia’s triumphant women’s 4x100m medley team at the Tokyo Games three years ago.
‘Standing on the podium just makes it that extra special being in the final team,’ she said.
Queen Mary showed she’s still an Aussie at heart when she visited the green and gold stars in the athletes village before attending the opening ceremony.
Despite attending the event in an official capacity for Denmark, the Australian-born royal took time to express support for Team Australia.
Mary, now 52, renounced her Australian citizenship in 2004 when she married King Frederik X.
Queen Mary took time out to visit Aussie athletes in the village (pictured) before she and her husband King Frederik X attended the opening ceremony
She was present alongside her husband in the lead-up to the opening ceremony, but made a notable detour to meet with the Australian delegation.
Photos shared by the Australian Olympic Team’s official Instagram account captured Queen Mary posing with the athletes in the village.
The account posted, ‘Royalty in the Village! Australian-born Queen Mary of Denmark joined athletes in the Olympic Village.’
Chef de mission Anna Meares added, ‘Once an Aussie always an Aussie… and the Danish Queen,’ alongside a photo with Mary.
Australia’s swim team have won five of the nation’s eight golds in Paris.
The 4x200m team join Australia’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relayers, Titmus (women’s 400m freestyle), O’Callaghan (women’s 200m freestyle) and Kaylee McKeown (women’s 100m backstroke) as swimming gold medallists in Paris.
