The familiar roar of the pool crowd deafened as Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh touched the wall at the finish of the women's 200m individual medley.
Douglass and Walsh appeared to finish second and third, respectively, in Saturday's race at Paris La Defense Arena. But Team USA would only add one more medal to its already impressive count as officials announced a review of Walsh's race.
The 22-year-old swimmer left the pool without the bronze after she was disqualified for what was deemed an illegal turn as she transitioned from her backstroke into a breaststroke.
"She rolls over...she went past vertical, that's the problem. The head has to come back and cannot go past that 90 degree mark," said NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines after the race. "From that angle, that looks like that's the right call."
Less than an hour later, her sister Gretchen entered the pool for a medal swim in the mixed 4x100m medley relay.
The younger sister by one year had been warming up for her relay race when she got the news of her's disqualification.
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"When I saw she touched third, I was thrilled that she was on the podium," Gretchen Walsh told reporters. "Then I did one more 50 of warm down and then it was a DQ. I was just stopped in the middle of the pool, so upset."
Gretchen Walsh said she only had moments to comfort her sister before jumping into the pool and swimming the relay in "[Alex's] honor."
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"I knew that I was going to have to move on from that quickly in the moment and give her a big hug, tell her that I'm here for her. And then go out and do this [win the mixed relay] in her honor," Gretchen Walsh said.
The added inspiration was clearly enough. The medley team not only swam to gold, but they also set a world record in the event, swimming 0.15 seconds than the previous time set in the Tokyo Games.
Gretchen Walsh isn't just bringing gold back from Paris. She also won silver in the women's 100m butterfly and women's 4x100m freestyle relay.
