Jodie Henry won the Olympic 100m freestyle gold medal, becoming only the third Australian woman to claim the title.

Henry powered to the wall in 53.84s, to beat Dutch defending champion Inge de Bruijn for the title by 0.22s.

She joins Fanny Durack, the first woman to win gold in an Olympic swimming competition in 1912, and Dawn Fraser in 1956, '60 and '64, in claiming the premier women's sprint race.

Henry was only fifth at the turn but put down the accelerator in the final lap to take her second gold medal of the Athens Games.

The 20-year-old anchored the Australian 4x100m freestyle relay to a world record on the opening night of the swimming in Greece last weekend.

She beamed as she walked onto the pooldeck for her individual race, waving to her team-mates who held a sign saying: "Go Jodie".

Former world recordholder Libby Lenton, who missed the final by just 0.09s, was at the pool cheering Henry on as she cemented her place in history.

Lenton's world mark of 53.66s four months ago at the Olympic trials in Sydney would have been enough to take the gold from her Queensland team-mate.

Henry was unable to better her world record of 53.52s set in her Athens semi-final - finishing 0.32 adrift of the time.

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