Saugus alumna Abbey Weitzeil secured her fifth Olympic medal on Saturday after Team USA’s second-place finish in the women’s 400-meter freestyle relay in the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Team USA captain led the U.S. to victory in the preliminary heats to start off the day. Weitzeil finished the first leg of her 100 meters in 53.60 seconds, setting the table for her team, which won its heat with a time of 3 minutes and 33.29 seconds.
The U.S. opted to swap in Gretchen Walsh, the current world record holder in the 100-meter butterfly, and Torri Huske, for Weitzeil and Erika Connolly for the finals where it needed everything to catch the favored Australians.
Team USA wasn’t able to catch Australia but set a new American record with a 3:30.20 finish after anchor Simone Manuel was able to chase down the Chinese team and secure silver.
Australia set an Olympic record with a 3-minute, 28.92-second finish.
Weitzeil has now medaled in three straight Olympic games after a gold and silver medal finish at the 2016 Summer Games followed by a silver and bronze in 2021.
The former Centurion will only compete in the freestyle relay but, as Team USA captain, will be seen at the pool for the remainder of the Olympics, where the U.S. inches closer to 150 all-time gold medals.
