PARIS -- An overwhelming sense of inevitability permeated La Defense Arena as the Australian quartet of Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O'Callaghan, Brianna Throssell, and Lani Pallister were welcomed to the pool deck ahead of the women's 200m freestyle relay final. The star-studded team confidently strode out arm in arm, making a bee-line for their place behind the prized lane four blocks. Up on the jumbotron, sitting high above the pool, flashed their ominous six-seconds-better-than-anyone-else and yet certain-to-be-improved-on semifinal time, one achieved without either O'Callaghan or Titmus.
Guaranteed gold medals simply don't exist at the Olympic Games, but for Australia, this was one event that felt pretty darn close.
The Dolphins' line-up was the envy of the world. In O'Callaghan and Titmus, Australia was blessed with the world's two quickest women over the 200m distance: the pair finishing a dominant one-two, in that order, in the individual event earlier this week. Then there's Throssell and Pallister, so easy to be overlooked given their highly credentialed and celebrated teammates, but both having set sub-1:55.80s times six weeks ago at the Australian trials in Brisbane that would not have looked out of place in that Olympic final taken out by O'Callaghan.
And yet when Titmus dived into the water to anchor Australia home on Thursday evening, her margin over the second-placed Americans was just 0.33s. China was also nipping at their heels. A race that was widely expected, and really supposed to be, a glorious procession to showcase Australia's unprecedented depth at the distance was wide open with 200m to swim.
But the Dolphins had something neither the Americans nor the Chinese team possessed; a multiple Olympic champion bringing them home, and one out to prove a point after relinquishing her 200m crown just days earlier.
Titmus cut through the water, extending the Australians' lead with each stroke. Before she was halfway up the pool, that thin lead was a full body length. By the time she had turned for home 75 seconds later, the camera crews had already zoomed out to capture those trailing in her wake.
Titmus made a mess of them in the final quarter of the race. Her scintillating split of 1:52.95s would have won her gold in that race against O'Callaghan on Tuesday evening. She flirted with the world record line until her final stroke, ultimately having to settle for a new Olympic record of 7:38.08s. But she'd also done something else; made a statement that she's the country's No. 1 swimmer.
"I'm proud that they had faith in me to put me last and get the job done," Titmus told reporters after the race. "It's very, very special up there on the podium with the girls."
Thursday evening's triumph, Australia's eighth gold medal at these Games, only enhanced the legacy of Titmus. The Tasmanian now has a fourth Olympic gold medal, this the first coming in a relay. She also continued her streak of medalling in every (7) event she's ever entered at the Olympics.
And then there's O'Callaghan. The other Dolphin staking her claim to being on the shortlist of the nation's greatest Olympians. Her Olympic gold medal tally now swells to five, tying Ian Thorpe and just one shy of Emma McKeon for most in Australian history. With two more relays to come over the next few days, there's every chance she equals that mark in Paris.
Once again, it must be stressed O'Callaghan is still just 20 years of age and far from a finished product in the pool. If she wants them, at least two more Olympic cycles beckon. How high she builds that medal tally is anyone's guess, but her resume is already lightyears ahead of where any other Australian has been to this point in their career.
The other intriguing wrinkle to Thursday evening's final was Australia's swimming gold medal tally climbing to five, one ahead of long-time rival the United States. With three days of competition remaining in the pool, and several more genuine gold medal chances, there's a very real chance Australia could finish top of the pile for the first time since 1956.
Let the Games continue.