On a wild final night of swimming, U.S. sets two world records, edges Australia in gold-medal race

NANTERRE, France (AP) — The final night of swimming at the Paris Olympics stirred a wide range of emotions for an American team that no longer rules the world.

A world record from Bobby Finke.

Elation.

A historic loss that reignited gripes about Chinese doping.

Stunning.

Finally, another world record for the women's 4x100-meter medley relay team to edge out rival Australia for the top spot in the gold-medal table.

Whew!

“Just an awesome way to cap off the meet,” said Lilly King of the winning relay team, who joined her teammates in strolling around the deck holding up the stars and stripes as the crowd filed out La Defense Arena.

Finke set his new standard in the 1,500 freestyle before the American women closed a thrilling nine days of swimming in style.

The U.S. finished with eight gold medals to top Australia, which won seven events. Still, it was the lowest victory total for the Americans since the 1988 Seoul Games, when they were beaten by a doping-tainted East German program.

They finished with 28 medals overall, two shy of their total three years ago in Tokyo. In all, 13 countries won at least one gold — French star Léon Marchand was essentially a country unto himself — and 19 teams made the medal podium.

After a bevy of disappointing performances by some of its biggest names, the U.S. team was very much aware of its gold-medal battle with the Aussies.

“I knew Bobby had tied it up,” King said. “Bobby’s swim was electric. That was amazing. He definitely got my energy going for the relay. I was pumped to hopefully assert that lead and get the gold.”

That's just what she did.

King, whose third Olympics will be her last, made up for a disappointing showing in her individual events by powering to the lead on the breaststroke segment.

Then it was Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, two of the biggest U.S. stars at these games, bringing it home in 3 minutes, 49.63 seconds to break the record of 3:50.40 set by the U.S. at the 2019 world championships.

Regan Smith led off in the backstroke leg, earning a relay gold for the second night in a row after starting her Olympic career with five silvers and a bronze.

Australia, the defending Olympic champion, took the silver this time in 3:53.11. The bronze went to China in 3:53.23.

Four world records were set during the meet, three of them by the U.S.

China stunningly won the gold in the men’s 4x100 medley relay, ending the American run of dominance that stretched back to the introduction of the event at the 1960 Rome Games.

The only time the U.S. didn’t win gold was in 1980, when it boycotted the Moscow Games.

The winning team included Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, who were both among the nearly two dozen swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games but were allowed to compete. The result stirred more hard feelings from other nations that feel the Chinese might have gotten away with cheating.

The real star of the Chinese team was Pan Zhanle, who had previously set a world record while winning the 100 free and powered away from American Hunter Armstrong on the anchor leg to touch in 3:27.46.

The Americans were left with the silver in 3:28.01, with France taking bronze in 3:28.38 to give Marchand his fifth medal of the games — four of them individual golds.

British star Adam Peaty, whose team barely missed out on a medal by finishing fourth, blasted a system that allowed the Chinese swimmers to compete at the Olympics.

“If you touch and you know you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right?” Peaty said. “As an honorable person, I mean, you should be out of the sport, but we know sport isn’t that simple.”

Peaty noted that after the initial revelations, additional reports surfaced of more positive tests in the Chinese program that went unpunished.

“I think we’ve got our faith in the system, but we also don’t,” he said. “Whoever’s in the race, I expect in my head that it has to be fair for them to be there. We did our best job as a team to do that, and it may have been (worthy of) a bronze. Who knows?”

Caeleb Dressel, who swam the butterfly leg for the Americans, said prior to the Olympics that he didn't have faith in the World Anti-Doping Agency or his sport's governing body, World Aquatics.

With a silver around his neck, he seemed resigned to the belief that nothing will change.

“I don’t work for WADA,” Dressel said. “There’s nothing I can do.”

Finke was under record pace the entire race and really turned it on coming to the finish. He touched in 14:30.67 to break the record of 14.31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang at the 2012 London Games.

The silver went to Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in 14.34.55, while race favorite Daniel Wiffen of Ireland couldn’t follow up his triumph in the 800 freestyle. He was never a factor and settled for the bronze in 14:39.63, barely holding off Hungary’s David Betlehem for the final spot on the podium.

Finke became only the fourth swimmer to defend the men’s title in the longest event at the pool, and the first since Australia’s Grant Hackett in 2004.

“I really wanted to get on top of the podium again and I hear the anthem all over again like I did for the first time in Tokyo,” said Finke, who swept the 800 and 1,500 three years ago.

This time, a gold in the 1,500 to go with a silver in the 800 felt pretty good, too.

“It was a dream,” he said.

Sarah Sjöström of Sweden claimed her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics, furiously dashing from one end of the pool to the other to easily claim the 50 freestyle title.

The 30-year-old Sjöström, competing in her fifth Summer Games, had already won the 100 free — an event in which she holds the world record but only decided to swim at the urging of her coach.

She was more surprised than anyone with that victory, which had her overflowing with confidence heading into the 50 free.

Sjöström touched in 23.71, just shy of the world record of 23.61 she set at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan. In a race that’s usually decided by mere hundredths of a second, the Swedish star turned this into a relative blowout. She was fastest off the block and clearly in control by the midway point of the single lap, where the swimmers don't even bother coming up for air.

Meg Harris of Australia took the silver in 23.97, while the bronze went to China’s Zhang Yufei in 24.20. For Zhang, another of the swimmers implicated in the Chinese doping scandal, it was her fourth bronze of the games to go with a silver.

Walsh, in her first swim of a busy night, just missed out on a medal in 24.21.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

United States' Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel, and Hunter Armstrong pose for a phztowith their silver medals during the awards ceremony for the men's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel, and Hunter Armstrong celebrate winning the silver medal on the podium for the men's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan pours water from her shoe after she and her teammates plunged into the pool after they were awarded silver medals for the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

United States' Torri Huske embraces teammates after winning the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

United States' gold medal winners Lilly King, Gretchen Walsha nd Torri Huske embrace on the podium during the awards ceremony for the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' gold medalists pose for a photo on the podium with Australia's silver medalists and China's bronze medalists during the awards ceremony for the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

China's Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun, and Pan Zhanle pose for a photo with their gold medals on the podium for the men's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' gold medalists Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske pose for photo on the podium for the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' Gretchen Walsh, from left, Lilly King, Regan Smith and Torri Huske celebrate winning the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States relay swim team celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Lilly King competes in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Gretchen Walsh, from left, Lilly King and Regan Smith celebrate winning the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' Regan Smith competes in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Gretchen Walsh, from left, Lilly King and Regan Smith celebrate winning the gold medal in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Bobby Finke competes in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' Bobby Finke celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem looks at the board after winning the gold medal in the women's 50-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women's 50-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

United States' Bobby Finke competes in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' Nic Fink competes in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

United States' Bobby Finke competes in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

China's team celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

United States' Bobby Finke celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's 1500-meter freestyle final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

China's swim relay team members celebrate winning the gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean commission found evidence that women were pressured into giving away their infants for foreign adoptions after giving birth at government-funded facilities where thousands of people were confined and enslaved from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday came years after The Associated Press revealed adoptions from the biggest facility for so-called vagrants, Brothers Home, which shipped children abroad as part of a huge, profit-seeking enterprise that exploited thousands of people trapped within the compound in the port city of Busan. Thousands of children and adults — many of them grabbed off the streets — were enslaved in such facilities and often raped, beaten or killed in the 1970s and 1980s.

The commission was launched in December 2020 to review human rights violations linked to the country’s past military governments. It had previously found the country’s past military governments responsible for atrocities committed at Brothers. Its latest report is focused on four similar facilities in the cities of Seoul and Daegu and the provinces of South Chungcheong and Gyeonggi. Like Brothers, these facilities were operated to accommodate government roundups aimed at beautifying the streets.

Ha Kum Chul, one of the commission’s investigators, said inmate records show at least 20 adoptions occurred from Daegu’s Huimangwon and South Chungcheong province’s Cheonseongwon in 1985 and 1986. South Korea sent more than 17,500 children abroad in those two years as its foreign adoption program peaked.

Ha said children taken from inmates at Huimangwon and Cheonseongwon were mostly newborns, who were transferred to two adoption agencies, Holt Children’s Services and Eastern Social Welfare Society, which placed them with families in the United States, Denmark, Norway and Australia. Most of the infants were transferred to the agencies on the day of their birth or the day after, Ha said, indicating that their adoptions were determined pre-birth.

While the facilities’ records say some of the women submitted memos expressing their consent to give away their children, other records indicate women were being pressured to do so, Ha said. A 1985 inmate record from Huimangwon flags a 42-year-old inmate with supposed mental health issues for “causing problems” by refusing to relinquish her child. Officials later note that she eventually did.

“It’s difficult to accurately determine how many more adopted children there might have been in other years,” Ha said, citing the commission’s limitations in staff. For Huimangwon, Ha said, the commission was only able to look through its inmate records from 1985 and 1986 and still found 14 adoptions. A further six adoptions were linked to inmates at Cheonseongwon.

At their peak, Huimangwon had about 1,400 inmates and Cheonseongwon 1,200. That was still smaller than the population at Brothers, which exceeded 3,000.

Holt and Eastern did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the commission’s findings.

Through documents obtained from officials, lawmakers or through public information requests, the AP in 2019 found direct evidence that 19 children were adopted out of Brothers between 1979 and 1986, and indirect evidence suggesting at least 51 more adoptions.

About 200,000 South Koreans were adopted to the United States, Europe and Australia in the past six decades, creating what’s believed to be the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees. Most of the adoptions occurred during the 1970s and ’80s, when South Korea’s then-military leaders were focused on economic growth and saw adoptions as a tool to reduce the number of mouths to feed, erase the “social problem” of unwed mothers and deepen ties with the democratic West.

The commission has also been conducting a separate investigation into the cases of 367 Korean adoptees in Europe, the United States and Australia, who suspect their biological origins were manipulated to facilitate their adoptions. It’s expected to release an interim report on that later this year.

The commission also identified other human rights problems at the four facilities it highlighted on Monday, which also included Gaengsaengwon in Seoul and Seonghyewon in Gyeonggi province. The facilities’ death tolls were high — the 262 inmates who were reported as dead from Gaengsaengwon in 1980 accounted for more than 25% of the facility’s population that year, Ha said.

Nearly 120 bodies of Cheonseongwon inmates were provided to a local medical school for anatomy practice from 1982 to 1992, the commission said. Most of the bodies were transferred to the school on the day the inmates were declared dead or the day after, and there are no indications that the facility made efforts to transfer the bodies to relatives, according to the commission, which didn't identify the school.

Huimangwon, Seonghyewon and Cheonseongwon also regularly received inmates transferred from Brothers, suggesting a “revolving-door” labor-sharing scheme between facilities that likely increased profit and prolonged the inmates’ confinements, the commission said.

The population at South Korea’s vagrant facilities peaked in the 1980s as the then-military government intensified roundups to beautify streets ahead of the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul. South Korea transitioned to a democracy in the late 1980s and has long stopped its practice of grabbing homeless people, the disabled and children off the streets and confining them.

Brothers closed in 1988, months after a prosecutor exposed its horrors. Seonghyewon now runs welfare programs for homeless people in the city of Hwaseong, while the three other facilities have changed their names and the services they provide. None of those facilities immediately released comments following the commission's report.

“The four confinement facilities had been allowed to continue their operations without receiving any public investigations even after 1987,” when Brothers was exposed, said Lee Sang Hoon, one of the commission’s standing commissioners. “It’s significant that we have comprehensively revealed the details of the human rights violations at (other) vagrant facilities across the country that had been concealed for 37 years.”

Ha Kum Chul, one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's investigators, speaks to the media during a news conference at the commission in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (Im Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)

Lee Sang Hoon, a standing commissioner, speaks to the media during a news conference at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (Im Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)