Great Britain secured a top-five finish in the Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay to round out a brilliant session that has set up some big Friday night finals tomorrow at the Olympic Games.
Across the evening, Ben Proud (Men's 50m Freestyle), Honey Osrin, Katie Shanahan (both Women's 200m Backstroke), Duncan Scott and Tom Dean (both Men's 200m Individual Medley) all ensured they will be back for medal showdowns at La Defense Arena.
In the relay, the quartet of Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Freya Anderson and Lucy Hope - supported by Medi Harris, who was replaced by Colbert after the heats - put together a brilliant combination of relay swimming in a world-class final to place fifth, in an event that last saw Team GB reach an Olympic final when they placed seventh at London 2012.
In this showpiece, Colbert set the tone with a stunning opening leg, clocking a new personal best of 1:55.95 to hand over fourth to Wood. Wood took things out hard across her opening 100m and then held on to maintain fourth place, while Anderson showed good back-end speed and Hope brought things home on the anchor leg as GB touched fifth.
"I think we were hoping for a little bit better but that field is just extraordinary. Being in front of that crowd, alongside these girls, it’s just such fun and good to get out there and race among the best in the world," said Hope.
"The cheers were so loud I was shaking. This atmosphere is second to none especially when there’s French swimmers out there. It’s the fastest it’s ever been at the Olympics so it’s just nice to be out there against the best in the world."
Ben Proud secured himself a centre lane for the eagerly-anticipated Men's 50m Freestyle final after a stunning semi-final tie with Australia's Cameron McEvoy.
Proud - who is looking to add an Olympic medal to his haul of World Championship, European and Commonwealth titles - started characteristically powerfully, leading as they came up at 15m and maintaining his advantage across 49m of superb sprint freestyle, before he was joined in the touch at the wall by McEvoy, the pair clocking the fastest times across the two semis.
It means Ben will go in either lane four or five for his third consecutive Olympic final, which he knows is set to be an absolute showstopper.
"Honestly I've never been in this position [tied in a semi-final]. It's certainly exciting, that race felt great - a semi-final always will because it's quite relaxed and you're just doing the job," he said.
"I was happy with that, and let's see how the lanes get drawn! Either way, I'm next to Cameron and he's a great racer to race against. It's funny, maybe not everything went right, but so much went right as well. It's always about finding that balance between what you can do well and what goes wrong. There's definitely more pressure coming into tomorrow night, but as a whole, this meet feels very calm and relaxed, and everyone's hoping to be in the same boat.
"We're going to have some great people in the outside lanes, some really top-class athletes and the whole pool's going to be stacked, so it's going to be fun."
Following up Ben's semi-final triumph came more progress into Friday finals, as both Honey Osrin and Katie Shanahan rubber stamped their places in the Women's 200m Backstroke final.
In her first ever event at an Olympic Games, Honey took things out strong from the opening lap and held her own against reigning Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown at the front of the pack, moving briefly into the lead on the third 50m and ultimately touching just behind McKeown to qualify third-fastest overall in a new personal best of 2:07.84.
Shanahan was a few lanes up from Osrin in the same semi-final, and while she did not go out at the same pace, the University of Stirling athlete showed good consistency in her rate to finish strongly, moving up to fourth down the home straight to ensure she booked a lane for the final, to follow up her finals swim in the 400m Individual Medley from earlier in the meet.
"I've definitely been working towards going 2:07s, 2:06s so I'm so happy to have broken through that barrier, I'm really happy," said Osrin.
Shanahan added: "I'm really happy to have made the final, I knew it was going to be tight tonight to get in so I'm happy to get in. I'm happy I made it, I'm not too happy with the swim, I feel like I've got more in the tank but I can't really complain making a second Olympic final."
The last of the British semi-finalists in action for the night were Duncan Scott and Tom Dean in the Men's 200m Individual Medley - and once again, the Team GB swimmers were on fine form to make sure they will be back for what looks set to be an unmissable finale tomorrow.
Both headed out for the first semi-final, with Scott involved in a tussle in the centre of the pool from the opening strokes. Scott - Tokyo silver medallist in this event - was third by the end of the backstroke leg and held that position on the breaststroke, closing the gap across that 50m before a well-controlled finish on the freestyle saw him move up into second and touch right after USA's Carson Foster, ultimately seeding him third for the final.
Dean's first individual event of the week saw him hold a steady place in the pack throughout. Like Scott, his freestyle finish is a strength, and this one saw Tom place fourth in the race and sixth overall for the final.
"We all swim because we back ourselves no matter how we’re doing, that’s really exciting. I need to stick to my own race plan tomorrow night, as there’s so many great people in there tomorrow. The quality in that field is pretty exceptional, which is something to be proud of and I’m excited to be amongst it tomorrow night," said Duncan as he looks ahead to the final.
Opening up the night was Laura Stephens in the Women's 200m Butterfly final. Swimming out in lane eight, Stephens gave a good account of herself but could not quite replicate the form of her semi-final swim, placing eighth in her first Olympic final.
Still, the Loughborough Performance Centre athlete has relished her moments in the arena - and she knows how many people have been involved in getting her and her Team GB teammates here.
"It's an amazing crowd, the atmosphere out there is everything you could dream of, in terms of my own performance, not everything I could've dreamed of unfortunately," she said.
"I was hoping to step up from what I did last night in the semis but I just didn't have that gear tonight. I tried my best but unfortunately the result wasn't there tonight.
"I've really enjoyed this experience. Coming off the back of my first Olympics in Tokyo, it was a different environment - this has been much more enjoyable, I've actually been able to have friends and family in the crowd that have travelled to see me.
"I'm just so grateful for all their support, and beyond my family and friends, everyone at Aquatics GB that helps, my coach Dave Hemmings, and then everyone who plays The National Lottery back in the UK. Our network of support is so big for athletes like myself through that, and we honestly can't sing praises enough for everyone in the country that backs us, we can really feel it all behind us with Team GB."
You can find details ahead of Friday's events - in both the swimming and diving - by heading to our Paris 2024 What's On? page.
Where can I watch?
The BBC will be covering the majority of the Games across BBC One and Two, the BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer. You can find their coverage schedule by clicking here.
Discovery+/Eurosport will also be broadcasting every minute of the Olympic Games but these channels require a subscription fee.