Yui Ohashi and Alex Walsh were almost stroke for stroke with 25 meters to go. At the other end, dangling in front of them like a carrot on a stick, was an Olympic gold medal. All they had to do was hold off the other woman.
The pair of swimmers were virtually neck and neck until the very end, when Ohashi produced one last kick to push herself to the wall first in the women’s 200 individual medley and claim her second gold medal of the Tokyo Games on Wednesday at Tokyo Aquatics Center.
“I didn’t know whether or not I would be able to win in the last 15 meters,” Ohashi said. “I just wanted to give it my all. I wanted to feel like I did everything I could whether I won or not.”