Sports
Olympic Swimmer From Ridgefield Wins Bronze Medal
After placing sixth in the preliminaries Saturday morning, Kieran Smith swam to a third-place finish in the finals, earning a bronze medal.
TOKYO, JAPAN — Five heats of the men's 400-meter freestyle swimming event were contested Saturday morning at the Tokyo Olympic Games, with the eight fastest times qualifying for the finals Saturday night. Among those competing for a medal was Kieran Smith of Ridgefield, who qualified with the sixth-fastest time of 3:45.25.
In the finals Saturday night, broadcast on NBC at 9:52 p.m., Smith improved his time by more than a second and a quarter to 3:43.94, good enough to finish third and earn a bronze medal.
Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia won the gold medal with a time of 3:43.36. Jack McLoughlin of Australia was 0.16 seconds behind to claim the silver medal.
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Henning Bennet Muhlleitner of Germany, who had posted the fastest preliminary time of 3:43.67, wound up fourth, 0.13 seconds behind Smith.
WHAT A FINISH. From lane 8, Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui wins Olympic gold and @TeamUSA's Kieran Smith gets the bronze. #TokyoOlympics NBC https://t.co/5UYl3veBXr NBC Sports App pic.twitter.com/7it1V0dFKm
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 25, 2021
Bronze medal in your debut Olympic final? Kieran Smith will take that. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/O7Ck1r7Jn8
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 25, 2021
Bronze for #USA! Kieran Smith finishes third in the 400m men's freestyle final to win his first Olympic medal.@fina1908 #Swimming @TeamUSA pic.twitter.com/RUOPuhkIY2
— Olympics (@Olympics) July 25, 2021
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