Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus continued their ascension to Olympic legend by helping two unheralded teammates collect precious gold in Paris.

O’Callaghan, Titmus, Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell formed Australia’s triumphant women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team which captured the nation’s eighth gold medal of the Paris Games.

The quartet were never headed in a resounding victory on Thursday night which delivers O’Callaghan a fifth Olympic career gold and third in Paris.

Titmus is now a four-time gold medallist and double-winner in the French capital.

Pallister’s first Olympic gold at her debut Games came after fearing she’d miss the relay when contracting COVID earlier in the meet, which forced her to withdraw from the 1500m freestyle.

“I bawled my eyes out. When I got COVID, I honestly thought I’d be out of that relay completely,” Pallister said.

Stalwart Throssell, who made her first national swim team a dozen years ago, is a dual Olympic gold medallist.

But she feels like a first-time winner, as her previous gold was for a heat swim in Australia’s triumphant women’s 4x100m medley team at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

“Standing on the podium just makes it that extra special being in the final team,” she said.

The quartet saluted in seven minutes 38.08 seconds, an Olympic record, to win by 2.78 seconds from the United States.

Australia’s swim team has won five of the nation’s eight golds in Paris.

The 4x200m team join Australia’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relayers,  Titmus (women’s 400m freestyle), O’Callaghan (women’s 200m freestyle) and Kaylee McKeown (women’s 100m backstroke) as swimming gold medallists in Paris.

Earlier Thursday night, Kaylee McKeown’s quest for Olympic history remains on track after a another strong backstroke showing.

McKeown, bidding to become the first woman to win consecutive 100m-200m backstroke titles at the Olympics, was second-quickest through the 200m backstroke semi-finals.

She successfully defended her title over the shorter distance on Tuesday night.

And veteran Cam McEvoy confirmed his status as gold-medal favourite for the men’s 50m freestyle.

The 30-year-old, the first Australian man to swim at four Olympics, was equal-fastest through the 50m free semi-finals in 21.38 seconds, the same time as Great Britain’s Ben Proud.

Australia’s Olympic debutant Liz Dekkers finished fourth in the women’s 200m butterfly final won by Canada’s Summer McIntosh, with compatriot Abbey Lee Connor seventh.

Dolphins duo William Petric and Thomas Neill failed to advance from the men’s 200m individual medley semi-finals, ranked 10th and 11 respectively.

In finals not featuring Australians, Hungary’s Hubert Kos (men’s 200m backstroke) and American Kate Douglass (women’s 200m breaststroke) won gold.