The Australian mind can't comprehend the Florida Gators dominating Olympic swimming

Heading into the Olympics, one of the big storylines was the rivalry between the United States and Australia in swimming. After just winning ten medals in swimming in 2016, Australia doubled their count to twenty medals at the Tokyo Olympics, and there was talk of whether they could beat the United States as a whole in Paris.

In the end, Australia held its own, but the United States prevailed in swimming, and the Florida Gators were a big reason for this.

Florida Gators: Swimming Power

On the final day of the competition, Bobby Finke won the 1500-meter freestyle and set a world record. Caeleb Dressel, who swam the butterfly leg on the American team that took silver, picked up another medal in the 4 x 100-meter medley.

Dressel is leaving Paris with two gold medals and a silver. Finke picked a silver earlier in the 800-meter freestyle. Kieran Smith earned silver in the 4 x 200 meter relay, and Emma Weyant picked up a bronze in the 400-meter IM.

Then, throw in the two golds, a silver, and a bronze medal from Katie Ledecky, who trains in Gainesville and is a volunteer coach with Florida's swim program. All told swimmers for Team USA with ties to the Florida Gators won eleven medals in Paris.

What was America's final margin of victory over Australia in the total medal count in swimming?

Ten.

It's a reminder to Australian swim fans not to count their kangaroos before their hatch (or however kangaroos are born; we are just dumb Americans after all).

This was also an important meet for Florida head coach Anthony Nesty, who was the head coach for Team USA in Paris. If he ever needed a recruiting tool to attract elite swimmers from around the world to Florida, he now has 11 shiny new medals in Gainesville he can point to as a primary reason to become a Florida Gator.