Australia's pursuit of a fourth straight Olympic gold medal in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay is all of a sudden not looking quite so promising, following rapid swims at the United States' Paris 2024 trials.
Australia won the women's 4x100m freestyle relay at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, leaving the Americans to pick up either silver or bronze.
And at the world championships in Fukuoka last year, an Australian women's 4x100m freestyle team won gold in a world record time of three minutes and 27.96 seconds (3:27.96). The USA trailed home in 3:31.93, collecting silver.
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But at the USA trials in Indianapolis on Thursday morning (AEST), Kate Douglass, Torrie Huske, Gretchen Walsh and Simone Manuel gave Australia's 100m freestyle speedsters a major scare a month out from the Paris Games.
Douglass took victory in the women's 100m freestyle final with a time of 52.56 seconds, ahead of Huske (52.93), Walsh (53.13) and Manuel (53.25), making for a combined time of 3:31.87.
At Australia's trials in Brisbane last week, Mollie O'Callaghan won the women's 100m freestyle final with a time of 52.33, ahead of Shayna Jack (52.72), Meg Harris (52.97) and Bronte Campbell (53.10), making for a joint time of 3:31.12.
The Americans' combined time is just 0.75 of a second slower than their rivals from Down Under.
"I'm excited to be united on one front for Team USA in a couple of weeks," Walsh said on the NBC broadcast after the women's 100m freestyle final at the USA trials.
"We're all great competitors but we're greater than the sum of our parts."
The results of the USA's women's 200m freestyle swimmers compare far less favourably than their 100m freestyle results.
Katie Ledecky won the trials final on Tuesday morning (AEST) in 1:55.22, as Claire Weinstein clocked 1:56.18, Paige Madden 1:56.36 and Erin Gemmel 1:56.75, making for an accumulative time of 7:44.51.
In the women's 200m freestyle final at Australia's trials, Ariarne Titmus posted 1:52.23, O'Callaghan 1:52.48, Lani Pallister 1:55.57 and Brianna Throssell 1:55.74, resulting in a combined time of 7:36.02 — more than eight seconds faster than their American counterparts.
O'Callaghan held the women's 200m freestyle world record heading into the race, and although the 20-year-old phenom broke that mark at Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Titmus went even quicker to steal the world record from her clubmate.
Australia also won the women's 4x200m freestyle in world record time at last year's world championships, stunning its rivals with a time of 7:37.50. The USA finished second in 7:41.38.
Australia is vying to win the women's 4x200m freestyle at an Olympic Games for the first time since Beijing 2008.
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