2024 Paris Olympics: Day 1 Finals Preview

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
  • Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Full Swimming Schedule
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• How To Watch
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• Day 1 Prelims Live Recap

Day 1 Finals Heat Sheet

Day 1 Finals Event Lineup

• Women’s 100 fly- Semifinals
• Men’s 400 free- Final
• Women’s 400 free- Final
• Men’s 100 breast- Semifinals
• Women’s 4×100 free relay- Final
• Men’s 4×100 free relay- Final

Four finals and two semifinals will highlight night 1 of swimming in Paris for the Olympics.

The women’s 100 fly semifinals will kick off the first night of swimming in Paris. The top four from the Tokyo Games will be in the 2nd semifinal as silver medalist China’s Zhang Yufei won silver in Tokyo and swam the fastest time of the morning with a 56.50. Bronze medalist in Tokyo Emma McKeon (56.79) will also be in the 2nd heat with Canada’s Maggie MacNeil (57.00) who will look to advance to tomorrow night and set herself up with the potential to defend her title. After just missing the podium in Tokyo with a 4th place finish, Torri Huske will look to earn a medal this time around after a 56.72, the 3rd fastest time of the morning

The first heat will feature World Record holder Gretchen Walsh of the US who swam the 4th fastest time of the morning with a 56.75. Mizuki Hirai set the World Junior Record just last month and had the 2nd fastest time of prelims with a 56.71 this morning.

The men’s 400 free will feature a whole new podium this year than it had in Tokyo and is almost a completely new final as Elijah Winnington of Australia is the only man to return from Tokyo.  Lukas Martens of Germany posted the top time of the morning but the top five men were within less than a second of each other. Martens just missed the World Record earlier this year and entered prelims as the top seed as well. Winnington brings his experience to the final and will look to make the podium after a 7th place finish in Tokyo.

Martens and Winnington finished behind Korea’s Kim Woomin at the 2024 World Championships in February. He will also swim in the final, swimming out of lane 1. Is an outside smoke on the horizon?

In the long-awaited battle, the women’s 400 free will feature Summer McIntosh, Ariarne Titmus, and Katie Ledecky all next to each other tonight. Ledecky had the fastest time of the morning as she chased Titmus down on the second half of the race. The three all swam in the 4:02 range this morning along with Erika Fairweather of New Zealand who notably won the 2024 World title in February. All four have been below the 4:00 mark before and it looks like it will take well below that to win tonight.

Titmus is the defending champion and World Record holder in the event. Titmus won the event at 2023 Worlds in her World Record time of a 3:55.38, leading the group of 4 above. Ledecky won silver, Fairweather bronze, and McIntosh was 4th.

The men’s 100 breast is the final individual event of the night. The top 16 this morning were all separated by less than a second as Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands led the way in a 59.04. World Record holder and 2x defending Olympic Champion Adam Peaty was 2nd this morning and will have the top seed of heat 1.

Last summer’s World Champion Qin Haiyang was 9th this morning in a 59.58 and will need to swim faster than at least one more person tonight in order to advance to tomorrow night’s final. Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi and Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands tied for 4th this morning and will look to make another podium in the event after winning silver and bronze in Tokyo.

The first of the two relays will be the women’s 4×100 free relay where Australia comes in as the top seed by over a second and a half. The Australian relay also saved some of their fastest legs for tonight and will be on World Record watch once again.

China led the way in the men’s 4×100 free relay and were led by World Record holder in the flat start 100 free as Pan Zhanle anchored in a 46.98 this morning, the fastest split of the field.