Alaskan Lydia Jacoby Has Surprising Olympic Swimming Gold Medal For America

There were four gold medal swimming races at the Olympics on Monday night in Tokyo, and Team USA looked poised to bring in a great haul of gold. However, it was a teenage swimmer from Alaska who brought the only gold for the night.

Lydia Jacoby, a 17-year-old from Seward, won the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic finals, making her the first resident from Alaska to win Olympic summer gold. The state's only other Summer Olympics medalist is Corey Cogdell, who won a bronze in shooting.

Jacoby outlasted a field that included fellow American Lilly King—the former Olympic champ and current world record holder—and a host of other swimmers.

This wasn't supposed to be the biggest race of the night, but it was for the Americans.

The women's 100-meter backstroke race in the finals set up to be an epic event on night four of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and the athletes didn't disappoint.

Australian Kaylee McKeown set the new Olympic record by beating American Regan Smith in perhaps the best race of Monday night (American time).

American TV broadcaster and swimming great Rowdy Gaines called the field the greatest in the history of women in this event.

This comes just one night after Australia's Ariarne Titmus pulled a come-from-behind win to knock off American Katie Ledecky in the finals for the women's 400-meter freestyle race, staging an upset and bringing back the spark of the Australian-American rivalry in international swimming.

Ledecky, who was a prohibitive favorite to win multiple freestyle events, led the 400 meters on Monday night (Japan time) until Titmus came from behind during the final 100 meters to win the Olympic gold.

She won her heat of the 200-meter freestyle on Tuesday in Japan to set her up in a final against Titmus on Wednesday (Tuesday night in the U.S.), for a rematch. Ledecky is the favorite to win the 1,500 on Tuesday night.

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