The Australian team made a poor start in the final after Fraser almost stopped during the first leg, believing that a false start had occurred after mistakenly hearing a second gunshot. She finished her leg in 1 minute 4.0 seconds, almost two seconds slower than her personal best, but enough for a 2.3-second lead over the United States' Sylvia Ruuska. Swimming the second leg, Leech maintained the lead in the first 50 metres but faded in the second half and finished with a split of 1 minute 5.1 seconds; the Australian lead was thus cut to 0.9 s. Morgan dived in for the third leg and was then overhauled and passed by American Nancy Simons. With 25 metres left, Morgan took her head out of the water—a fundamental error—and seeing the American a body length in front, responded with a surge to regain a 0.7-second lead heading into the final changeover. Crapp then extended the margin to 2.2 seconds to secure an Australian victory in a world-record time of 4 minutes 17.1 seconds. The victory was the first time that Australia had swept the 100-metre freestyle relay and individual events for both men and women. The only other time that this has been achieved was by the Americans in 1920 in Antwerp. The win would be Australia's only triumph in a female swimming relay at the Olympics until the 2004 Games in Athens. The victory made Morgan Australia's youngest-ever gold medallist; this record still stands.