PIX: China end US reign; Sjostrom does sprint double

Images from the Olympics swimming action at the La Defense Arena, Paris, on Sunday.

The United States' 64-year unbeaten run in the men's 4x100 metres medley ended at the Paris Olympics on Sunday as China swept to a seismic win at La Defense Arena.

Amid deafening cheers at the converted rugby stadium, the 100 metres freestyle world record holder Pan Zhanle brought China home with an outrageous swim as he, Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun won in a time of three minutes, 27.46 seconds.

Caeleb Dressel and the Americans took silver, 0.55 seconds behind the Chinese, while a Leon Marchand-powered France grabbed the bronze.

The US did not compete at the 1980 Moscow Games due to a boycott, but they had never been beaten in the men's medley final dating back to the inaugural event at the 1960 Rome Games.

Pan will take enormous credit for defeating them as he rocketed to the wall in 45.92 seconds.

Qin, who swam the breaststroke leg, was also important with a sizzling time of 57.98 to upstage France's four-gold hero Marchand.

Finke wins 1,500m freestyle gold with World record

American iron-man Bobby Finke smashed the men's 1,500 metres freestyle World record as he retained the Olympic gold medal in a thrilling swim.

After 30 lung-busting laps, Finke touched the wall in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds at La Defense Arena, eclipsing Sun Yang's 12-year-old mark of 14:31.02 set at the London Games.

Gallant Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri took silver, 3.88 seconds behind Finke, with Daniel Wiffen, the 800m gold medallist, taking the bronze for Ireland.

Finke became the first male swimmer to go back-to-back in the gruelling event since Australia's Grant Hackett in 2000-04 and the first American since Mike Burton in 1968-72.

It gave the US their seventh gold medal of the meet, the team leapfrogging Australia to the top of the table on the last night of competition.

Australia, who also have seven golds but fewer medals in total, will need to win at least one of the two remaining medley relay events and hope the US miss out on more gold to take back top spot.

Three years after winning the 800m and 1,500m golds at Tokyo, Finke marked his place among the titans of distance swimming with an aggressive swim which he led from start to finish.

He was a full body length ahead of Paltrinieri and Wiffen by the 300-metre mark.

Paltrinieri made a charge near the 600-metre mark and pulled up to Finke's waist, but there was no stopping the American.

Ireland's first men's Olympic swimming champion, Wiffen had tipped a World record would be needed to take gold and hoped he would be the man.

It was Finke, though, producing something special to hold on for the World record and send the La Defense Arena crowd into hysteria.

Sjostrom adds 50m freestyle gold to 100m title

Sweden's World record holder Sarah Sjostrom completed a remarkable freestyle sprint double by adding the women's 50 metres gold to her 100m title in her fifth Games at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

Australia's Meg Harris, a gold medallist in the 4x100m free relay, took the silver and China's Zhang Yufei secured the bronze for her fifth medal of the Games and ninth of her career.

The Swede, whose 100m win was almost accidental after she made a late decision to enter, has defied the years by swimming as well as ever in a Games with few world records and where times have mattered less than tactics and mental strength.

She smashed Hungarian Katinka Hosszu's Olympic record in the semi-finals, where she was the only swimmer under 24 seconds as she went 23.66.

Sjostrom could not match that time in Sunday's "splash and dash" at the La Defense Arena, touching the wall in 23.71 after the single length thrash down the pool and then raising two fingers in triumph.

Harris finished 0.26 behind her, the only other woman under 24 seconds, and Zhang was 0.49 off the Sjostrom's pace.

Sjostrom, silver medallist in the 50m at Tokyo three years ago - and after breaking her elbow before those Games, now has six individual medals from the last three Olympics -- three golds, two silvers and a bronze.

That number pales in comparison to the 23 individual medals she has won at World Championships, plus two relays.

• THE OLYMPICS, 2024