Japan's Ai Shibata became the first Asian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal in long-distance freestyle swimming, outside the record time of 8:24.54. France's Laure Manaudou, who claimed the title in the 400 m freestyle, added a silver to her medal tally, with a time of 8:24.96. U.S. swimmer Diana Munz, on the other hand, edged out her teammate Kalyn Keller for the bronze medal by 0.36 of a second, clocking at 8:26.61.[2][3]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.