Florida Gator swimmer Emma Weyant wins bronze at Paris Olympics

The Florida Gators are starting to become accustomed to standing on the medal stand in Paris. After former Gator Caeleb Dressel kicked things off on Saturday by helping the United States win its first gold medal of the Olympics, current Gator Emma Weyant took her turn to join the medal party.

It wasn't gold, but it was her second career medal in arguably the most challenging event in all of swimming.

Florida Gators: Different Strokes

Weyant came into the Paris Olympics as the defending silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics in the 400 meter IM. The event requires swimmers to swim 100 meters of each of the four strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle) and is the ultimate test of endurance and all-around ability.

Weyant never really had a chance at the gold in the finals as Canada's Summer McIntosh, who trains in Weyant's hometown of Sarasota, blistered the field with a time of 4:27.71 to win by six seconds over silver medalist Katie Grimes and seven seconds over Weyant.

But Weyant had to come from behind to even get on the podium and win a medal. 50 meters into the race, she was next to last, and even well past the halfway mark, she was still in 6th.

But a strong breaststroke and freestyle segment enabled her to finish third with a time of 4:34.93.

Even though she didn't win gold, she was still in high spirits afterwards when she talked to reporters.

""This is the fastest I've been in two years, so I'll take it...I think getting to back-half my races has always been a strength of mine, but especially today that came in handy""

- Emma Weyant

This was Weyant's only event at the Olympics. She will eventually return to Gainesville for her senior season with the Gators. She is a seven-time All-American and the defending NCAA champion in the 400-meter freestyle.