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Abbey Weitzeil won a silver medal swimming the anchor leg on the United States’ women’s 4X100-meter medley relay team Saturday evening, California time, the second medal of the Tokyo Olympics for the swimmer raised in Saugus.
Weitzeil swam the third-fastest freestyle leg in the relay, 52.49 seconds, but it was not enough to keep Australian Cate Campbell from erasing the Americans’ lead of 0.25 of a second entering the final leg.
Campbell swam her leg in 52.11, the fastest of the race, as Australia won in an Olympic-record three minutes, 51.60 seconds, 0.13 of a second ahead of the U.S., which was timed in 3:51.73. Canada was third in 3:52.60.
The medal was the fourth for the 24-year-old Weitzeil who won a bronze medal last Saturday by swimming the second leg on the U.S. women’s 4X100 freestyle relay team. She won a gold medal as part of the 4X100 medley relay team and a silver on the 4X100 freestyle relay team in the 2016 Olympics.
Weitzeil was last in the women’s 50-meter freestyle earlier Saturday in 24.41 seconds, her second opportunity in the Tokyo Games to win her first individual medal. Australian Emma McKeon won in an Olympic-record 23.81 seconds. Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden was second in 24.07 and Pernille Blum of Denmark third in 24.21.
Weitzeil swam a lifetime best 24.19 seconds in Friday’s semifinal, the fourth-fastest time which moved her up to fourth on the list of all-time fastest Americans in the event. Her previous best was 23.45 set in 2020.
Weitzeil was eighth in the women’s 100 freestyle Wednesday, a race she finished seventh in during the 2016 Rio Games, where she advanced to the semifinals of the 50 freestyle.
Weitzeil graduated from Saugus High School in 2015 and deferred entering UC Berkeley for a year to train for the Olympics. She swam for the Golden Bears from 2016-20, winning the 2019 NCAA championship in the 50 freestyle and was the recipient of the 2020 Honda Sport Award for swimming, given to the national swimmer of the year.
Saugus Swimmer Abbey Weitzeil Wins Second Medal of Tokyo Olympics was last modified: July 31st, 2021 by
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