Curtain raises on Paris 2024 swimming programme

An electric atmosphere circled a packed La Defense Arena for the first night of swimming finals, with the first four of 35 gold medals to be awarded across the nine days of the pool programme decided.

The first British action in a medal event came in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle, with Anna Hopkin, Eva Okaro, Lucy Hope and Freya Anderson repeating the formation that had secured them a place among the top eight international teams to progress from the morning heats.

Hopkin led off at pace, touching first at the 50m turn before handing the baton over to Okaro in fifth. Okaro - who created history today as the first black female ever to represent Team GB in the pool at an Olympics - put in a solid leg, with Hope backing that up before Anderson dived in to anchor the team home.

Freya Anderson notched the team fastest individual split, touching in seventh as the quartet delivered an improved collective time from heats to final.

After the race, 17-year-old Okaro spoke through the emotions of making her Olympic debut,

"I am honoured to be in this position. I think it's an incredible achievement just to have got here and it was so much fun.” she said,

"It was slightly faster than this morning. It's our first Olympic final with the girls and it was so much fun. They have all been very welcoming and very encouraging. Especially because it's my first Olympics. They have been to other Olympics so it is nice for them to see youngsters coming up through the team. I really enjoy doing it with them."

The respective men’s event followed with Matt Richards stepping into the quartet for Alexander Cohoon – the Olympic debutant having produced a superb leg in the heats to help the British team in securing lane three for the final.

Richards started off the order, with Jacob Whittle and Tom Dean providing the engine through the middle section of the race as they attempted to build a position that would keep the team in medal contention.

Duncan Scott took on the mantle of the anchor leg and fought hard to get on the wave of the Chinese team and close the gap, ultimately bringing the race home in fifth.

Reflecting on the performance Matt Richards commented:

“Yeah it’s obviously frustrating, we wanted to get in there and get after the medals tonight so it’s tough to be on the wrong side of it. I think we all put in a great effort and obviously Cahoon this morning as well, so it’s an honest effort and we’ll see what we can do across the rest of the week.”

Duncan Scott adding:

“I think it shows where we’ve come with the 4x100m that we’re pretty disappointed with fifth, but as Britain coming fifth in that event is the highest we’ve finished in how knows long so we’ve got to hold our heads high – we’ve all got more events to come this week and that’s pretty exciting even if this isn’t the start we wanted.”

Meanwhile Adam Peaty’s campaign to achieve a third consecutive Olympic title in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke continued to grow in momentum as he booked lane four for the final.

Soaking in the atmosphere as he walked out into the arena, Peaty looked composed and ready to take on the job at hand as he stepped up behind the blocks. A positive start saw The Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 champion get up and into his rhythm, turning at the halfway mark first and holding his form through to the close of the race to qualify as the fastest seed from both semi-finals.

Commenting on his progress through the rounds, Peaty said:

"Very good. That was just like, business. It was just getting out there enjoying the crowd, a bit of adrenaline, and it has put me in the best lane for the final so we will see what we get there tomorrow.

“I know I have been in this situation many times before and again it is about enjoying it. I don’t want to go out there tomorrow and be anxious. Of course you are going to have nerves, I embrace the nerves, I love the nerves but whatever the result tomorrow, I want to finish with a smile and know I have given my all with no mistakes and I think I can do that.

“I think in sport, it is the best thing, you can inspire so many people around the world just to be one percent better and tomorrow I just need to be one percent better myself. I am going to need all the shouting, all the prayers and we’ll see what we get."

Drawn in the lane alongside Peaty in semi-final one, James Wilby just missed out on progression in 11th place.

The Women’s 100m Butterfly semi-finals had provided the open act of the evening session - with Team GB’s Keanna MacInnes having earnt her place in an outside lane courtesy of a 57.90 seconds lifetime best swim in the heats.

MacInnes came close to replicating her morning swim to finish 16th overall on the world stage, and the University of Stirling swimmer now turns her eyes to the 200m distance event on Wednesday 31st July.

“I was really pleased with this morning’s heat, A little bit disappointed not to move onto the final but to move on that swim from this morning, I needed to go out a little bit quicker but I think I was a bit tense and that probably cost me on the back end.” said MacInnes,

“I was going in [ranked] 24th so I knew that I would pretty much have to do a PB to make it back and when I saw the time this morning, one of the girls in my heat had beaten me by a hundredth so I thought oh no, that better not cost me it but I just snuck back in there.”

Earlier in the day Kieran Bird lined up at his second Olympic Games to contest the Men’s 400m Freestyle. The Bath Performance Centre swimmer ranked 16th at the close of the heats, an improvement on his result from Tokyo three years ago.

Six British swimmers will be in action as pool swimming resumes with Sunday’s heats at 10am, while you can find details of all the upcoming aquatics disciplines schedules from Paris 2024 through our 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.