American women pile up more Olympic medals in swimming’s grueling 400 IM

NANTERRE, France — Team USA swimmers Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant earned silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the women’s 400-meter individual medley Monday night on Day 3 of swimming at the Paris Olympics. But Canadian star and favorite 17-year-old Summer McIntosh took the lead early and never relinquished it on her way to gold.

“I couldn’t really see anything until the breaststroke second 50-ish,” McIntosh said. “But [I] kind of looked around to make sure I was in a comfortable lead and definitely knew that I had the gold medal going into that last 100 meters. So that was an amazing moment.”

In the physically and mentally draining parade of all four strokes, Grimes won the silver with a time of 4:33.40, while Weyant won bronze in 4:34.93 at Paris La Défense Arena. McIntosh won gold with a time of 4:27.71 — not quite within reach of her 4:24.38 world record time from Canadian trials in May.

“This is the fastest I’ve been in two years, so I’ll take it,” 22-year-old Weyant said.

Both two-time Olympians, Weyant earned her second Olympic medal in the 400 IM after winning silver at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and 18-year-old Grimes won her first after she finished fourth in the 800-meter freestyle three years ago.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

“Katie came away in Tokyo with no medals at all so this means a lot,” Grimes’ coach Ron Aitken told USA TODAY Sports via text. “She wanted so much to get a [medal] and now she’s done it.”

Weyant and Grimes qualified for the 400 IM final first and second, respectively, in Monday morning’s prelims ahead of McIntosh. But given how taxing the race is, it’s reasonable to assume they were all doing just enough to make it to the final.

Like McIntosh, Grimes’ placement in the race never changed, always hitting the wall in second. But the 400 IM forces swimmers to strategically lean into their strengths because most have a weak stroke or point.

“I think getting to back-half my races has always been a strength of mine, but especially today that came in handy,” said Weyant, who was in seventh after the first 50 meters, sixth at the 250-meter mark and third on the last 100. 

While Weyant’s Paris Olympics are over after her lone event, Grimes still has the 1,500-meter freestyle, which begins Tuesday, and the open water 10K marathon swim in the Seine River — set for August 8, if the water is clean enough.

“I look forward to seeing what’s next,” Aitken added.