NANTERRE, France — Finally, Carmel has an Olympic medalist in swimming.
Drew Kibler swam third leg for the U.S. team finishing second to Great Britain in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay Tuesday night at Paris La Defense Arena.
The gold medalists finished in 6:59.43, about a second off the world and Olympic record set by the United States at Beijing 2008. The Americans’ time for silver was 7:00.98. Australia took bronze in 7:01.98.
It was a redemptive swim for Kibler, who was on the 4x200 freestyle relay team that finished fourth at Tokyo in 2021. It was the first time a U.S. relay had ever finished off an Olympic podium.
Heading into the race, the four British swimmers had a collective 15 Olympic medals and the Americans three.
The British — James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards, Duncan Scott — were deservedly favored. Scott anchored in 1:43.95.
The British became the first relay team in Olympic history to repeat as gold medalists with the same four swimmers.
Splits for Team USA: Luke Hobson, 1:45.55; Carson Foster, 1:45.31; Kibler, 1:45.12; Kieran Smith, 1:44.80.
Hobson, Foster and Kibler have all been University of Texas swimmers. Indeed, Foster and Kibler had never lost together in this relay, including two NCAA titles and two 2022 world golds (long course and short course).
Kibler is one of seven American men to have made global teams in each of the past four years. The others: Hunter Armstrong, Nic Fink, Bobby Finke, Chase Kalisz, Ryan Murphy, Smith. Fink and Kibler were the only two without Olympic medals before Paris, and now they have theirs, too.
Also winning silver medals were Indiana University graduate Blake Pieroni, of Chesterton, and Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano. They swam in the heats and are awarded the same medals as the final four.
Also in the final were IU’s Rafael Miroslow, a 1:46.32 leg for Germany in eighth, and Tomer Frankel, a 1:47.71 for Israel in ninth.
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In the heats, the Americans were second to Britain in 7:05.57. That foursome: Kibler, 1:46.43; Brooks Curry, 1:45.96; Pieroni, 1:46.44; Guiliano, 1:46.74.
Elsewhere, IU’s Josh Matheny was sixth in semifinals of the 200 breaststroke in 2:09.70, advancing to Wednesday’s final. He was 10th in the heats in 2:10.39.
Guiliano was sixth in semifinals of the 100 freestyle in 47.72, and he will race for a third medal in the final Wednesday. In the heats, he was eighth in 48.25 and Frankel 21st in 48.66.
In heats of the women’s 1,500 freestyle, IU’s Ching Hwee Gan lowered her own Singaporean record to 16:10.13 and was ninth, less than two seconds from the final. She was third in March’s NCAA Championships in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.