Aussie Meg Harris wins shock silver in 50m freestyle as Swedish veteran Sarah Sjöström completes sprint double
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PARIS: Australia's Meg Harris has won a shock silver medal in the 50m freestyle in Paris as Swedish veteran Sarah Sjöström completed the sprint double after her 100m win.
Harris, 22, appeared stunned and the expression on her face after looking up at the screen to see the result said it all.
Sjöström backed up her 100m win with her pet 50m event to win in 23.71 seconds in her fifth Olympics.
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Meg Harris has won silver in the 50m freestyle in Paris. Nine
Meg Harris and Shayna Jack embrace after the 50m freestyle. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
Harris touched second in 23.97, ahead of China's Yufei Zhang in 24.20.
Harris, who has partial deafness in both ears, admitted she had "no words" after winning a medal in her first individual Olympic final.
She also won gold with the 4x100m freestyle team last week.
"You always go out there with the hopes that you're going to do your best," she said.
"And I mean, I would have done everything I've ever done again to do that moment."
Shayna Jack was eighth in 24.29, with the Australians sharing a long embrace on the pool deck after the race.
Jack, 25, served a two-year doping ban after testing positive for the banned drug Ligandrol in 2019.
The ban was reduced to four years after Jack fought to clear her name but it meant she missed Tokyo 2020 as her teammates raced for gold.
"I'm in a different kind of state of shock, I'm just really proud of myself and I hope everyone back home is proud of me too, it's been a long journey to get here," an emotional Jack told Nine's Olympic coverage.
"I couldn't be prouder to be there and to see Meg's name up there just made me even prouder because, you know, she's such a quiet achiever."
She leaves Paris with two gold medals from the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays, a fifth-place finish in the 100m freestyle and tonight's eighth in the 50m freestyle.
"I don't think I'm giving myself time to reflect, but, although that swim wasn't the swim that I trained for, I'm just finishing up these Games and being so proud to be here and take away all those memories," she said.
"I couldn't ask for a better time.
"And to everybody who, you know, wanted to be here and are sitting at home watching this, I'm so proud of you all and I wish you could be here with us."
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