This time, Duncan Scott had no problem sharing a stage with the winner of the gold medal. In fact, there was no one he would rather have stood next to on the podium than his room-mate and close friend, Tom Dean.
It was at the 2019 World Championships in South Korea where Scott caused a stir by refusing to join Chinese drug cheat Sun Yang on the platform after claiming the bronze medal behind him, leading to an ugly exchange. Two years on and in the same 200metres freestyle event, there could not have been more love by the side of the pool, as two Brits shared hugs, handshakes and history.
Not since Henry Taylor and Thomas Battersby in 1908 — when the competition took place in an outdoor pool on an athletics field — had there been a British one-two in Olympic swimming. But four monarchs, 20 prime ministers and 113 years later, Dean and Scott wrote their name into the record books in Tokyo, continuing the gold rush started by Adam Peaty, who was watching from the stands.
Tom Dean (R) and Duncan Scott (L) secured an historic one-two for Team GB in 200m freestyle
Dean, who took gold, embraces Scott following the pair's remarkable triumph in Tokyo
Dean, 21, touched the wall in a British record time of 1min 44.22sec, just four hundredths of a second ahead of Scott, 24, and turning the tables on the team-mate who had beaten him by 0.11sec at the national trials in April.
Such are the fine margins between the pair, this could be a rivalry for the ages, one which becomes swimming's answer to the tussles between British distance runners Seb Coe and Steve Ovett in the early 1980s.
Yet it said everything about their bromance off the blocks that Scott's first thought when he hauled himself out of the water to speak to television was to pay tribute to 'Deano'.
'He has come so far in the last 18 months and it is a pleasure to watch,' said the magnanimous Scott, who was the marginal favourite coming into the final and adds a silver to the two he won in relays at Rio 2016.
'We're in an apartment together and we get on really well. We're mates outside of the pool first and then we're competitors as well. I don't think I've shared the podium before with a fellow team-mate, so to do it with him was special. Our best possible outcome is one-two and we delivered on that.'
New champion Dean said: 'Duncan and I are great mates — he's a class act. I have looked up to him for a long time. To share a podium with him is amazing.
'It's a dream come true to have an Olympic gold around my neck and to go one-two with another Brit on the podium,
