Meilutyte Pips Pilato By 0.01 For Dash Gold

Women's 50m breaststroke - how the 0.01sec loss hurts: “It’s a persecution! I’m happy because swimming three times under 30 is important. I would have liked to win, but that’s okay and… I’m never coming back to Paris.” Benedetta Pilato

by Craig Lord

published August 16, 2026

Meilutyte Pips Pilato By 0.01 For Dash Gold — **Ruta Meilutyte** of Lithuania - another dash gold in the vault -photo by Patrick B. Kraemer

Ruta 'Midas-Touch' Meilutyte of Lithuania strikes again! And, at the same time, 0.01sec apart, the curse of the titchy loss struck Italian Benedetta Pilato once more.

Pilato had set the pace in heats and semis, never over 30sec. Then, in the showdown, Meilutyte in the next lane, the rivals raced stroke for stroke, neck and neck, splash for splash, It could have been either off them - but the 2012 Olympic 100m champion with record of often getting her hand to the wall first, expect in the days she was thrown by the cheating of a Russian rival, did it again: 29.93 to 29.94.

And that wasn't the end of the crunch: Ireland's Mona McSharry set an Irish record of 23.95 to make the 2026 dash the tightest podium in then event's history back to 1999.

So, tightest win, and tightest podium in history. They used to be 0.02, Petra Chocová over Sycerika McMahon in 2012, and in the same race Chocová to Caroline Ruhnau, 0.1.

Here in the same city two years ago, Pilato missed bronze in the Olympic 100m final by 0.01 at the 2024 Olympics, McSharry the swimmer who took the last prize - and she did that again in 2026, in the dash today, too: 29.95 for bronze, another Irish record in the vault.

Pilato, coached by Mirko Nozzolillo in Rome since September last year, wasn't amused.

“It’s a persecution! I’m happy because swimming three times under 30 is important. It’s certainly the beginning of a journey after a year full of changes. I would have liked to win, but that’s okay and… I’m never coming back to Paris.”

McSharry leaves Paris with a medal in each breaststroke final, bronze in the dash and 200, silver in the 100. She said:

“It’s crazy. I didn’t even realise that (it was so close), I kind of just looked for my own spot and I saw, again, the three little red dots on the block. I was like, oh, wow, I actually did it. I felt really good in that one, I think the heat and semi felt a little off the first 25m, and I was like, I just need to trust myself that I go for it, and I did. I happily got my hand on the wall first, and I think it just shows that you’re never out of the race.”