Rio Olympics: Can you tie for a gold medal in swimming?

 During the Women’s 100 meter freestyle race, two swimmers, tied for first, both clocking in at completing the race with an Olympic record of 52.70 seconds.  

The Rio Olympics have been a great deal of fun to watch this year. Although we are in the first half of the Olympics, there still have been plenty of crazy finishes and upsets.

In fact, one of the craziest finishes in recent memory occurred during the Rio Olympics Women’s 100 meter freestyle.

During the 100 meter freestyle competition, American swimmer Simone Manuel and Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak both finished the race in first. They both clocked in at an Olympic record of 52.70 seconds. In other words, the two women had just tied for gold while both besting an Olympic record.

While it may seem unbelievable for two people to tie for gold, it has happened before. It is actually a common enough occurrence that at the Sochi Olympics, there were 46 extra gold medals on hand just in case ties happened. For instance, at the Winter Olympics there have been eight gold medal ties, with each participant of the tie receiving a gold medal.

Next: Rio Olympics medal count 2016: Simone Manuel, Michael Phelps make history

In the Summer Olympics, there isn’t as clear of a record to see if there have been other ties. Regardless, the policy is the same; whoever finishes in first gets the gold medal. Tonight, two very talented women both finished in first, and both be getting medals for their impressive and record-setting performances.

So, to simply answer the question, yes, you can tie for gold in an Olympic swimming competition.