{"id":462113,"date":"2025-07-31T21:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=462113"},"modified":"2025-07-31T23:15:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:15:05","slug":"aussies-beat-americans-for-gold-as-ocallaghan-matches-thorpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=462113","title":{"rendered":"Aussies beat Americans for gold as O&#039;Callaghan matches Thorpe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/mollie-o-callaghan-6g5y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan\">Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan<\/a> anchored Australia to glory\ufeff in the women&#x27;s 4x200m freestyle relay on Thursday night and in doing so won a record-equalling 11th long-course world championship gold medal.<\/p>\n<p>The only other Australian who owns 11 long-course world championship gold medals is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/ian-thorpe-3dl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Ian Thorpe\">Ian Thorpe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>An Australian quartet featuring Lani Pallister, Jamie Perkins, Brittany Castelluzzo and O&#x27;Callaghan, who swam in that order, seized gold at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/swimming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"swimming\">swimming<\/a> world championships in Singapore with a time of seven minutes, 39.35 seconds (7:39.35).<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2025-gold-coast-titans-roster-analysis-aj-brimson-jayden-campbell-positions-darren-lockyer-exclusive-comments-20250730-p5mjch.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>Ex-Origin star&#x27;s radical position switch to revive Titans<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2025-jack-wighton-shoulder-charge-suspension-south-sydney-rabbitohs-phil-gould-jason-demtriou-comments-20250731-p5mjex.html\"><strong>&#x27;Got to fix that&#x27;: Gus fumes over &#x27;ridiculous&#x27; Wighton ban<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/rugby\/world-news-2025-matt-burke-hall-of-fame-induction-australia-wallabies-great-live-tv-reaction-20250731-p5mjfb.html\"><strong>Burke&#x27;s live TV reaction as he&#x27;s named for prestigious honour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6376403177112\" src=\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2025\/07\/710032\/pickerimage.jpg\" alt=\"Australia wins women&#x27;s 4x200m relay gold\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cmdrvjut0000q0gpl225xtguc\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The United State\ufeffs picked up silver in 7:40.01 as China claimed bronze in 7:42.99.<\/p>\n<p>Crucial to Australia&#x27;s win was a phenomenal third leg by Castelluzzo\ufeff. Australia was placed second when the Adelaide product began her leg, and she found herself trailing by more than a full body length as the United States&#x27; Erin Gemmell surged ahead at a rate of knots, but Castelluzzo mowed the American down in the final 50 metres to ensure O&#x27;Callaghan started her anchor leg with the team leading.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the World Aquatics Championships live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9now.com.au\/world-aquatics-championships-swimming?ocid=nine.com.au-9now-a39185-worldaquaticschampionshipsswimming&amp;_branch_match_id=1454736864143938114&amp;_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXLy4pSk3M1bPMyy%2FXS87P1Uss1U81KS8yLQ0yiwxNsq8rSk1LLSrKzEuPTyrKLy9OLbJ1zijKz00FAOKnuIZAAAAA\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"5da5f3b7-c13b-468a-89e8-355aa090f7d4\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/5da5f3b7-c13b-468a-89e8-355aa090f7d4-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan is greeted by her relay teammates after completing the anchor leg.\" data-width=\"5754\" data-height=\"3714\" \/><\/p>\n<p>O&#x27;Callaghan was up against the greatest female swimmer of all time, American icon Katie Ledecky. The champion from Logan began her swim with an advantage of 0.39 of a second, and although it was clear she was tired having already swum her 100m freestyle heat and semi-final earlier in the day, she held off the legendary American to ensure victory for what was a new-look team.<\/p>\n<p>This was a team missing Ariarne Titmus and Brianna Throssell, both of whom featured in Australia&#x27;s 4x200m freestyle triumphs at the Paris 2024 Olympics and the \ufeff2023 world championships in Fukuoka. Throssell called time on her decorated career after the Paris Games, while Titmus is having a 12-month break post-Olympics.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"cd400a99-0f20-4a24-ba8d-0db3b4d9a39f\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cd400a99-0f20-4a24-ba8d-0db3b4d9a39f-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Gold medallists Lani Pallister, Jamie Perkins, Brittany Castelluzzo and Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan.\" data-width=\"4568\" data-height=\"2570\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Titmus commentated on Thursday night&#x27;s relay win, sharing her astute thoughts as the Dolphins in the pool filled her with pride.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Well done, Team Australia,&quot; Titmus said on the Nine coverage as O&#x27;Callaghan closed out victory.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Two women in that race that have never swum in a relay final [on a senior Dolphins team], and we are\ufeff still on top of the world.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/swimming\/world-aquatics-championships-2025-mollie-o-callaghan-womens-200m-freestyle-final-results-video-jamie-perkins-20250730-p5mj3x.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"O&#x27;Callaghan won the 200m freestyle final on Wednesday night\">O&#x27;Callaghan won the 200m freestyle final on Wednesday night<\/a> to draw level with Grant Hackett\ufeff on 10 long-course world championship gold medals, before surpassing Hackett and matching Thorpe on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"f4a37771-fae0-4443-a6fb-5820c738d783\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/f4a37771-fae0-4443-a6fb-5820c738d783-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan and Katie Ledecky pictured after the relay race.\" data-width=\"3000\" data-height=\"2000\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old has now won three gold medals at these world titles \u2014 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/swimming\/world-aquatics-championships-2025-australia-4x100m-freestyle-gold-medals-men-women-mollie-o-callaghan-meg-harris-kyle-chalmers-20250727-p5mi7d.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"the 4x100m freestyle relay\">the 4x100m freestyle relay<\/a>, the 200m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay\ufeff \u2014 and could yet add to her stash this week with the 100m freestyle and more relays to come.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s everything to me,&quot; O&#x27;Callaghan said of winning another relay gold medal in an interview on Nine.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I take any opportunity to come and do this event.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I knew I had to lift for this. I&#x27;m always here for the relays.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s a great privilege because it shows the depth that we have. It just shows the depth coming through to LA [the 2028 Olympics], and to start off like this is just incredible.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>And what does it mean to O&#x27;Callaghan to be sharing <em>that<\/em> record with Thorpe?<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"10b7065f-c803-4ade-9ae2-30965c6c7cf6\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/10b7065f-c803-4ade-9ae2-30965c6c7cf6-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Australia&#x27;s relay golden girls celebrate their triumph.\" data-width=\"3237\" data-height=\"2158\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;\ufeffI know this has been the hot topic of the week,&quot; the Queenslander laughed.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Actually, I haven&#x27;t really thought about it too much.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Coming off [the] Olympics last year and having the downs of the break and the post-Olympics blues and then injuring myself, it&#x27;s just been a rollercoaster.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;And to come along here and to compete in the finals [and] to get golds is just something I wouldn&#x27;t believe at the start of the year, or last year.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Bronze for Chalmers<\/h2>\n<p>Earlier in the night, Kyle Chalmers secured bronze in the men&#x27;s 100m freestyle with a time of 47.17 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Romanian superstar David Popovici clinched gold in 46.51 \u2014 a European and world championship record \u2014 as American Jack Alexy claimed silver in 46.92.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Pan Zhanle, the Chinese sensation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/olympics\/paris-2024-kyle-chalmers-pan-zhanle-doping-questions-100m-freestyle-results-comments-reaction-20240801-p5jygp.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"who won gold in the event at the Paris Olympics and broke the world record\">who won gold in the event at the Paris Olympics and broke the world record<\/a> in doing so, crashed out in the semi-finals in Singapore. \ufeff<\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6376371776112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/pickerimage-52.jpg\" alt=\"Chalmers reflects on winning bronze\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cmdrcy07w000n0hling15unml\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>McIntosh keeps astonishing bid alive\ufeff<\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, 18-year-old Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh kept alive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/swimming\/world-aquatics-championships-2025-summer-mcintosh-katie-ledecky-events-schedule-ariarne-titmus-20250726-p5mi3w.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"her incredible pursuit to win five individual gold medals at these world titles\">her incredible pursuit to win five individual gold medals at these world titles<\/a> by triumphing in the women&#x27;s 200m butterfly\ufeff, which she won with a world championship record of 2:01.99.<\/p>\n<p>McIntosh finished just 0.18 of a second outside the world record \u2014 the 2:01.81 set by China&#x27;s \ufeffZige Liu in 2009 during the controversial &quot;super suit&quot; era.<\/p>\n<p>McIntosh must now win the 800m freestyle and the 400m individual medley if she is to become just the second swimmer in history to claim five solo gold medals at a single long-course world championships.<\/p>\n<p>She will have to overcome Ledecky in the 800m freestyle, the American legend&#x27;s pet event, to achieve the remarkable feat.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Australia&#x27;s Elizabeth Dekkers netted bronze in the 200m butterfly in 2:06.12.<\/p>\n<p>Silver was won by American Regan Smith in 2:04.99.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"34da3028-a55a-426e-8969-60cbcd0e1661\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/34da3028-a55a-426e-8969-60cbcd0e1661-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"From left to right: Silver medallist Regan Smith, gold medallist Summer McIntosh and bronze medallist Elizabeth Dekker.\" data-width=\"3833\" data-height=\"2156\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Mollie O&#x27;Callaghan anchored Australia to glory\ufeff in the women&#x27;s 4x200m freestyle relay on Thursday night and in doing so won a record-equalling 11th long-course world <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=462113\" title=\"Aussies beat Americans for gold as O&#039;Callaghan matches Thorpe\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":462116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462113"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462132,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462113\/revisions\/462132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/462116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}