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The United States won two medals, but Japan’s Yui Ohashi captured the top prize in the women’s 200-meter individual medley final at the 2021 Olympics.
Ohashi, Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass finished in the top three spots during Tuesday’s race. The win is Ohashi’s second of these Games after the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday.
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2⃣medals, 1⃣ race!<br><br>Alex Walsh???? and Kate Douglass???? take home silver AND bronze for <a href=”https://twitter.com/TeamUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@TeamUSA</a> in the women’s 200m IM! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TokyoOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#TokyoOlympics</a> <a href=”https://t.co/YoL4nQmeJM”>pic.twitter.com/YoL4nQmeJM</a>
Women’s 200m Individual Medley Results
Gold: Yui Ohashi, Japan (2:08.52)
Silver: Alex Walsh, United States (2:08.65)
Bronze: Kate Douglass, United States (2:09.04)
4th: Abbie Wood, Great Britain (2:09.15)
5th: Yu Yiting, China (2:09.57)
6th: Sydney Pickrem, Canada (2:10.05)
7th: Katinka Hosszu, Hungary (2:12.38)
8th: Alicia Wilson, Great Britain (2:12.86)
Tuesday’s race was a thriller, with Ohashi just sneaking by Walsh and Douglass in the final stretch. All three were running neck and neck for most of the final 50 meters.
Walsh appeared to have a slight edge around the 25-meter mark, but Ohashi started to pick up steam to win her second gold medal in Tokyo.
Ohashi has been building toward this moment for years, dating back to her gold medal win at the 2016 Asian Championships.
She followed that up by setting a Japanese record in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2017 World Championships with a time of 2:07.91, but that wasn’t quite good enough to get past Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu.
Walsh and Douglass, both 19, had stellar Olympic debuts in this event. It’s fitting that they would end up on the medal podium together. The University of Virginia teammates both won NCAA championships this year to help the program win its first-ever team title.
Ohashi’s margin of victory of 0.13 seconds is the smallest in Olympic history since the women’s 200-meter individual medley was added in 1972.
Walsh’s silver medal is the best finish by an American woman in this event since Amanda Beard finished second in 2004.
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