Erika Fairweather (Ngāi Tahu) has finished eighth in the women’s 800m freestyle final at Paris La Defense Arena on Sunday morning (NZT), completing the last of her races in “a big programme” of events.
The 20-year-old was competing in her fourth final of the Paris Olympics, having narrowly missed a medal in her first event, the women’s 400m freestyle last weekend.
Fairweather’s time of 8:23.27 mins for today’s race was fractionally slower than her 8:22.22 mins heat time.
The New Zealand Team congratulated Fairweather in a social media post that led with the words “Inspiring a nation”, after she wrapped up her second Olympic Games following her Tokyo 2020 debut as a 17-year-old.
“Well done Erika on completing a big programme, we know you will be better for this experience!”
The gold medal was won by American swim star Katie Ledecky in 8:11.04 mins.
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus claimed the silver medal with a time of 8:12.29 mins and Paige Madden of the United States rounded out the medals with bronze, stopping the clock at 8:13.00 mins.
Fairweather placed 7th in the women’s 200m freestyle final and 8th with the New Zealand team in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay final.
