On a day where the majesty of Léon Marchand seemed to be the only story without a twist in the winning tale, the 100 breaststroke final, astonishment washed over Torri Huske when she looked up at the scoreboard only to realise she'd just become an Olympic champion.

"You can kind of see out of the corner of your eye, but you never really know for sure," she said after stopping the clock at 55.59, imagining it might be good for silver but then realising that USA teammate and world-record holder Gretchen Walsh (55.18) had clocked 55.63, 0.04sec behind her.