Jewish swimmer Claire Weinstein won her first Olympic medal on Thursday, earning silver in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay alongside U.S. Olympic legend Katie Ledecky.
Weinstein, 17, swam the first leg of the U.S. team’s relay, helping the group take second place with a time of 7:40.86, more than two seconds behind first-place Australia. Erin Gemmell and Paige Madden rounded out the team.
The biggest story of the event was that the team’s silver was Ledecky’s 13th Olympic medal, making her the most decorated U.S. woman Olympian in history, and the second-most decorated overall, behind swimmer Michael Phelps, who won 28. With the achievement, Ledecky, 27, passed three other swimmers, including 12-time American Jewish Olympic medalist Dara Torres. Torres, who has more medals than any other Jewish athlete, competed in five Games; Paris is Ledecky’s fourth Olympics. Ledecky was raised Catholic but has Jewish heritage — including family members who died in the Holocaust.
“It’s really special being on a relay for the USA, and it just makes it even more special that we could be a part of Katie’s journey,” Weinstein said after the win, according to NBC.
Weinstein — a New York native who celebrated her bat mitzvah at Reform Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains and now trains in Las Vegas — clinched her spot in Paris by placing second in the 200-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Team trials, finishing behind Ledecky. Weinstein competed in that same event in Paris on Monday and finished eighth. She had beaten Ledecky by .02 seconds in the race at the 2023 U.S. Swimming Championships.
Weinstein also won a gold medal in the 4×200 relay at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest. She had qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials at the age of 13 but did not make the team.
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