Sevenoaks’ Eva Okaro made history at Paris 2024 and labelled her Olympic experience ‘mind-blowing’.
The 17-year-old, the first black female to represent Team GB in the pool at an Olympics, dived in for her debut at La Defense Arena as part of the Team GB women’s 4x100m freestyle relay squad.
Joined by Anna Hopkin, Lucy Hope and Freya Anderson, Okaro swam the second leg and produced a split of 53.75 as the GB quartet finished Saturday’s final seventh in a time of 3min35.25sec.
“It was slightly faster than this morning (heats) and it’s our first Olympic final together,” said Okaro. “It was so much fun.”
Australia won gold, USA took silver and China bronze in front of thousands of baying fans in the second-largest indoor arena in France, which hosted a Taylor Swift ‘Eras Tour’ gig in May.
“They [the nerves] were incredibly high,” Okaro added: “It was just kind of mind blowing. I was more nervous than I have ever been.”
Hopkin and Anderson both won relay gold medals at Tokyo 2020 and Hope also featured on the Olympic stage three years ago.
Okaro hailed the trio for guiding her through an intense first Games experience.
“They have all been very welcoming and very encouraging,” said Okaro. “Especially because it’s my first Olympics.
“They have been to other Olympics, so it is nice for them to see youngsters coming up through the team. I really enjoy doing it with them.”
Okaro created history in the French capital by becoming the first black woman to represent Team GB in the pool at the Games.
“I am honoured to be in this position,” she said. “I think it’s an incredible achievement just to have got here and it was so much fun.“
Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.
