Theile arrived in Rome as an outsider, despite being the defending champion as he had not regained his form of four years prior, with Robert Bennett and Frank McKinney of the United States posting faster times. This appeared to be the case in the heats, with Theile posting the third fastest time behind the American duo. In the semifinals, Bennett was unable to repeat his earlier performance and Theile won, while McKinney won the other semifinal, also in a time slower than Theile. Theile was confident approaching the final, recounting "I had great faith in myself and my abilities. I had a short, sharp peak, which meant that I had to save everything for that burst and then exert everything I had for precisely that moment." Theile attacked at the outset in the final, as was his style, and held a slender lead at the 50-metre mark over McKinney and Bennett. Theile made a good turn, lengthening his lead to half a body length, before holding off a late surge to claim consecutive gold medals, defeating McKinney by just 0.2 s, setting a new Olympic record in the event. For the first time, the 4×100-metre medley relay was contested at the Olympics, and combining with Terry Gathercole, Neville Hayes and Geoff Shipton, the Australians finished well behind the Americans to win the silver medal.