Four one hundredths of a second earned Torri Huske gold in Paris.
Huske, hailing from Arlington, Virginia, tore through the pool during the 100m butterfly final on day 2 of Olympic competition with a time of 55.39.
“I feel like I’m in shock right now,” Huske said after the thrilling race.
Teammate and dominant University of Virginia swimmer Gretchen Walsh was only 40 milliseconds behind. She hit the wall with a time of 55.63 earning herself a silver medal. This is Walsh’s first individual Olympic medal.
“I’m just happy that we’re going to be one-two on the podium today,” Walsh said.
The one-two win for the USA is the first time America held the top two spots in the competition since 1984, according to NBC Olympics.
Five of the seven fastest female swimmers in history were in the pool for the race which makes the Team USA wins even more spectacular. Walsh broke the Olympic record in the semifinals on Saturday with a time of 55.38 — one millisecond ahead of Huske’s time today.
Walsh was in the lead for the first leg of the race, but then the field tightened with several swimmers jockeying for the top three positions. In the end, Huske inched out Walsh for No. 1. China’s Yufei Zhang earned bronze with a time of 56.21.
Huske was emotional in and out of the pool once the race results sank in. In the Tokyo Games, she missed the podium by 10 milliseconds.
“I’m so thankful to be here and to do it with Gretchen is amazing. I’ve had a long road and I’ve had a lot of support and I’m so thankful for all of it,” Huske said.
Huske and Walsh both have two medals from the Paris Olympics. They won silver in the women’s 4x100m relay Saturday night along with UVA alum Kate Douglass and Simone Manuel.
