At the Tokyo Olympics, Torri Huske missed the women's 100m butterfly podium by a single hundredth of a second. Three years later, she's the Olympic champion. And she had to chase down the world record holder, American teammate Gretchen Walsh, to do it.
Huske won an electric final in 55.59 seconds, beating Walsh to the wall by 0.04 to win her first individual Olympic gold.
"I'm in shock right now," Huske told NBC's Melissa Stark immediately following the race. "I'm so thankful to be here with Gretchen. It's just amazing. I've had a long road but I've had a lot of support and I'm so thankful for all of it."
Walsh took silver for the first individual Olympic medal of her career. The 21-year-old broke the world record in the event at June's U.S. Olympic swimming trials when she clocked 55.18, but could not replicate that speed in Paris. She came close in Saturday's semifinals, though, touching in an Olympic record of 55.38. A similar time in the final would have been good enough for gold.
"I'm just happy that we're both going to be 1-2 for USA on the podium today," Walsh said afterward.
Both Huske and Walsh also earned silver medals Saturday as teammates on the U.S. women's 4x100m freestyle relay.
China's Zhang Yufei claimed bronze in 56.21.