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Australia has won one gold, one silver and one bronze in the pool so far today – but our women were left shell shocked in the 4x200m freestyle relay final after China smashed out a world record.
Led by 200m freestyle Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, Australia was the red-hot favourite to win another gold in the relay – but instead they trailed the entire race to collect the bronze medal.
It was when the dust settled that the gamble taken by Aussie selectors truly sunk in.
The entire Aussie team was replaced by four fresh swimmers on Thursday after Australia qualified fastest in the heats on Wednesday night.
Adding Titmus and Emma McKeon to the team was supposed to make the Aussies unbeatable – but it instead fell apart.
In better news, Izaac Stubblety-Cook won the Men’s 200m breaststroke final. It is the first time Australia has won the event since 1964.
And, in the 100m freestyle final, Kyle Chalmers came within 0.06 of defending his Rio title when a fast-finishing second behind American gun Caeleb Dressel.
