Americans Accuse Australia Of Cheating In Gold Medal Swim Race At Tokyo Games

Americans have accused Australia of cheating after they won gold in the women's 4x100 medley relay race.

The Aussie swimmers clinched gold in the epic race on the weekend and Kaylee McKeown (backstroke), Chelsea Hodges (breaststroke), Emma McKeon (butterfly) and Cate Campbell (freestyle) stood proud on the podium.

However, they didn't have long before viewers in the US were voicing their anger on social media about the race.

Australia narrowly nudged out America by 0.13 seconds in the race.

The criticism coming from the US centred on Campbell's reaction time in leaving the block after Emma McKeon's touch.

She dived into the water 0.04 seconds after her teammate touched the wall, which is absolutely incredible.

PA

Comparatively, Abbey Weitzeil's reaction time was 0.38 seconds as she launched into the final lap and some say it was Campbell's lightning jump into the water that earned Australia the win.

But if you ask Americans, they reckon there's controversy afoot.

One person wrote: "You can see on the replay that Australia/ Campbell went early!"

Another added: "Can USA swim appeal? Saw on NBC replay that Aussie last swimmer jumped in early before 3rd swimmer touched the wall."

A third said: "Either that was a false start or that was the slowest exchange I've ever seen smdh. Australia women bullied USA women. Embarrassing. 2024 gotta pay them back for this humiliation."

Cate Campbell was even shocked when she finished her lap.

Speaking after the race, the Aussie gold medallist was worried her jump was going to be too early and the whole team would have been punished.

"I saw a number one next to our names and I thought, 'oh, my goodness, that's incredible'," Campbell told Channel 7.

"I looked up and the girls were celebrating and I thought 'my changeover was very quick, we've either just won an Olympic gold medal or we've just been disqualified'.

"So I was like we have to wait until the results are official. And they were official and we are Olympic gold medallists."

The win secured our ninth swimming gold at Tokyo, which makes the 2020 Games the most successful outcome since the 1956 Melbourne Games when Australia won eight gold medals.

Emma McKeon also wrote herself into the history books by becoming the first Australian athlete to win four gold medals at one single Olympics.

She won another gold after the 4x100 to make her the most successful Australian at any Olympics in history.

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie