NANTERRE, France — Notre Dame and Carmel made more swim history Saturday night at the Paris Olympics.
Chris Guiliano is not only the first Notre Dame men’s swimmer to represent Team USA at an Olympic Games. Now, he is the first gold medalist.
Guiliano gave the Americans the lead for good, and they went on to win the 4x100-meter freestyle for a third successive Olympics.
It was Team USA's first gold medal of the Paris Olympics in any sport.
Jack Alexy, Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel finished first in 3:09.28. Australia was silver medalist in 3:10.70. Italy took the bronze in 3:10.70.
Elsewhere, Aaron Shackell gave Carmel a finalist in the 400-meter freestyle in successive Olympics. It wasn’t until three years ago that Carmel had produced a U.S. Olympic swimmer.
Shackell, seeded 14th, was sixth in the heats and eighth in the final. Carmel’s Jake Mitchell was eighth at Tokyo in 2021. He and Shackell both set national high school records, too.
Both swimmers were coached by Chris Plumb, a member of the U.S. coaching staff in Paris.
“That’s a not a coincidence, man. That’s Chris,” Shackell said. “Chris knows how to coach the 400, that’s for sure.”
Shackell, after winning the Olympic Trials at Indianapolis in 3:45.46, lowered that by .01 to 3:45.45 in prelims. His time was 3:47.00 in the final.
Shackell said he surprised himself by reaching his first Olympic final. At 19, he was youngest swimmer in the field.
“I wasn’t feeling great this whole week. I kind of battled through that,” Shackell said. “Me and Chris had some talks, and we showed up this morning. Tonight, legs were hurting a little bit. It just didn’t happen. It’s good experience for future races.”
He comes from a family of Olympic swimmers. His father, Nick, represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His sister, Alex, 17, qualified for Paris in the 200 butterfly and 4x200 freestyle relay.
In the 4x100 freestyle relay, Dressel won an eighth gold medal, tying for sixth among all Olympians. Michael Phelps is the leader with 23. Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larisa Latynina have nine each.
Splits for the Americans: Alexy 47.67, Guiliano 47.33, Armstrong 46.75, Dressel 47.53.
Guiliano, 21, of Douglassville, Pa., could leave Paris with more medals. He will be the first American in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles since Matt Biondi at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Also picking up a gold was Matt King, who swam in the heats. King, who is transferring to Indiana University, gave the Hoosiers a gold medal in the 4x100 free relay for a third Olympics in a row. Blake Pieroni won gold in 2016, and Zach Apple and Pieroni did so in 2021.
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.