NANTERRE, France — American Regan Smith versus Australian Kaylee McKeown by no means appears to get outdated, whether or not they’re competing in the identical race or on reverse sides of the globe. 

And Tuesday’s girls’s 100-meter backstroke last — one of the vital extremely anticipated swimming showdowns on the 2024 Paris Olympics — didn’t disappoint. McKeown out-touched Smith by .33 seconds to win her second consecutive 100 again Olympic gold. 

Smith, 22, received silver with a time of 57.66, and fellow American Katharine Berkoff, 23, received bronze with a 57.98 swim at Paris La Défense Enviornment.

McKeown, 23, broke her personal Olympic document with a time of 57.33, decreasing the mark by .14 seconds, and have become the primary swimmer to efficiently defend her 100 again Olympic title since American Natalie Coughlin on the 2004 and 2008 Video games.

“She’s considered one of one,” Smith mentioned about McKeown. “She is a completely unimaginable racer, and she or he is aware of what to do when it issues.”

2024 Olympic medals: Who’s main the medal depend? Observe alongside as we observe the medals for each sport.

Of the medalists, Smith was first off the block and was tied for the lead on the 50-meter mark with Canada’s Kylie Masse. McKeown was fourth on the flip earlier than exploding on the final 25 to take the lead and in the end gold.  

“You look ahead to that second a lot, and then you definitely get to the race and also you end the race, and I can not even keep in mind it now,” mentioned McKeown, who’s additionally the defending OIympic champion within the 200-meter backstroke. 

“However I knew it could come all the way down to that final 25 meters. It is one thing that I have been training for, and one thing that the People and myself are actually good at — is ending our races robust. So it’s simply gonna be whoever had it in that final 5, 10 meters.”

Whereas the 2021 Olympic document fell — albeit to the earlier proprietor — Smith’s 57.13 world document stays intact. However she and McKeown have been preventing over it for some time. 

Within the final 5 years, each swimmers have damaged the 100 again world document twice. Smith broke it in 2019, McKeown took it in 2021 earlier than decreasing it once more in 2023, and Smith reclaimed it in June at U.S. Olympic trials. 

“I wish to name it a rivalry as a result of we’ve traded world data,” Smith mentioned, “however she’s all the time good at getting it achieved when it issues. So I wish to give her the credit score the place it is due. 

“However with that being mentioned, yeah, I am extremely proud that we’ve actually solidified ourselves as the 2 quickest girls in backstroke historical past, and that is actually particular to be part of. … She’s a really real and respectful particular person, and I feel we’ve a extremely nice relationship.”

The 100 again last was all the time going to be an in depth race within the newest chapter of the decades-old storied USA-Australian swimming rivalry with Smith, McKeown and Berkoff, respectively, qualifying inside .30 seconds of one another in Monday’s semifinals. 

Masse — the 2021 Tokyo silver medalist and 2016 Rio bronze medalist within the 100 again — completed fourth, and Australia’s Iona Anderson was fifth. 

A two-time Olympian, Smith received her fourth medal on the Video games, however she’s nonetheless racing for her first gold. On the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she was the 100 again bronze medalist and received two silvers within the 200-meter butterfly and girls’s 4×100-meter medley relay. 

“I am proud that I used to be in a position to drop [time] from semis,” mentioned Smith, who shaved off .31 seconds within the last. “That is one thing that I’ve struggled with lots previously, and I stayed in my very own lane, I executed my race plan and I left all of it within the pool.”

First-time Olympian Berkoff made historical past of her personal in Tuesday evening’s last. Her bronze was each Crew USA’s 3,000th Olympic medal and USA Swimming’s 600th OIympic medal, in accordance with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. 

She’s additionally not the primary member of her household to earn some {hardware} on the Video games. Her father, David Berkoff, is a four-time Olympic medalist and received the lads’s 100 again silver within the 1988 Seoul Video games and bronze in 1992 in Barcelona.

“He is been very supportive, simply making an attempt to remind me to remain in my very own lane, keep in mind why I am doing what I am doing and simply do it for myself and nobody else,” Berkoff mentioned. 

“I am so grateful that he obtained to be right here to observe it.”

The USA TODAY app will get you to the guts of the information — quick.Obtain for award-winning protection, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and extra.