Meg Harris admitted she was struggling for words when she won a 2024 Paris Olympic Games silver medal in the 50m freestyle, in a massive personal best time of 23.97 seconds. She became the third fastest Australian in history.
Meg Harris is known as a great teammate on the Australian Swim Team. She is bubbly, warm and enjoys conversation.
But when she came to be interviewed poolside after swimming in her first individual event at an Olympic Games, she admitted she was struggling for words.
The reason? She had just won a 2024 Olympic Games silver medal in the 50m freestyle, in a personal best time of 23.97 seconds on the final day of competition.
The performance was a shock even to herself, shaving a stunning 0.29s off her lifetime best.
Unsurprisingly, she confessed she had a dry mouth, and her body was shaking before the race.
“I got out there with a goal to enjoy myself. It was the most fun race ever. I was shocked for a second [at coming second]. First time under 24, so I can’t be more happy than that,” she said.
Meg Harris is another Queenslander who moved to Adelaide to be guided by SA noted sprint coach, Peter Bishop.
She arrived following the Tokyo Olympics.
At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, Harris swam the third leg in the Australia women’s 4x100m freestyle relay along with Shayna Jack, Mollie O’Callaghan and Emma McKeon to break the world record in a time of 3:27.96.
The previous record also by an Australian team was 3:29.69.
Harris also won another gold medal as a heat swimmer in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay and silver medal as a heat swimmer in the women’s 4x100m medley relay.
In August 2023 Harris announced she would move from the South Australia Sports Institute (SASI) program to join the Rackley Swim Team in Brisbane under Damien Jones.
Meg Harris has been inducted into Swimming SA’s Hall of Fame.
