2024 Paris Olympics: Day 2 Prelims 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
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Pick ’em Contest
• How To Watch
• Entry Lists
• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1
• Finals Live Recaps: Day 1 

Day 2 Prelim Heat Sheets

Day 2 Prelims Event Lineup

• Men’s 200 free
• Men’s 400 IM
• Women’s 100 breast
• Men’s 100 back
• Women’s 200 free

The 2nd morning of competition in Paris will feature five events during prelims. The men’s 200 free will kick off the session where David Popovici of Romania enters as the top seed with a 1:43.13. He is the top seed by over a second as Lukas Maertens is the #2 seed with a 1:44.14. Popovici notably is the World Junior Record holder in the event and the former 100 free World Record holder. Maertens is coming off an Olympic gold in the 400 free after winning on night 1.

Half of the men’s 400 IM field will advance to tonight’s final as there are only 16 entries in the whole event and 8 advance. Leon Marchand broke Michael Phelps’ World Record in the event last summer and is the top seed here with a 4:02.50. American Carson Foster is the #2 seed with a 4:06.50 and is competing in his first swim in the Olympics this morning. With such a small field, the morning swim looks to be about earning a spot in finals.

China’s Tang Qianting just missed Lilly King‘s World Record this season with a 1:04.39 and is the top seed. Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte won gold in 2012 in the event and returns to the big stage once again after serving a doping suspension during the 2020 Tokyo Games due to whereabouts failures. World Record holder Lilly King looks to return to the podium after gold in 2016 Rio and silver at the  2020 Tokyo Games.

The men’s 100 back enters as a tight field with 12 athletes in the 52-point range. The top seed is Ryan Murphy of the US who enters with a 52.04 and is the highest returner from Tokyo in the event as he won bronze then. Murphy holds the Olympic Record from the 2016 Rio Games with a 51.85.

The World Record holder Thomas Ceccon of Italy will also swim in the morning and will look to advance to finals. Ceccon already competed on day 1, helping Italy to bronze in the men’s 4×100 free relay. Also already getting some competition under his belt here is Hunter Armstrong of the US who had a huge split to help the 4×100 free relay team to gold last night. Armstrong is the #5 seed and will swim next to China’s Xu Jiayu.

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus won gold in the women’s 400 free already and will look to add to her medal tally in the 200 free. She is the defending Olympic champion and set a new World Record in the event at Australian Olympic Trials last month with a 1:52.23. She broke fellow Australian’s former World Record Mollie O’Callaghan who is the #2 seed with a 1:52.48 here. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey also enters as a contender after silver in Tokyo.