French Men Primed To Challenge For Medley Relay Medal As Questions Linger For Other Contenders

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The stars are aligning for the French men in the medley relay at the Paris Olympic Games.

At last summer’s World Championships, Maxime Grousset unleashed the second-fastest butterfly split in history, 49.27, to vault France into medal contention in the event, with the quartet of Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Leon Marchand, Grousset and Hadrien Salvan ultimately placing 4th in 3:29.88, 26 one-hundredths shy of a medal.

The Americans dominated en route to winning gold, while China and Australia took silver and bronze—both with 46-point anchor legs compared to the French, which had a 48.40 leg from Salvan on the end.

The team missing from the 2023 final was Italy, the 2022 world champions, which finished 9th after a lackluster prelim performance.

As we descend on the men’s medley relay this weekend, each medal-contending country has something to be concerned about.

The Americans are the big favorites, but saw Ryan Murphy surprisingly miss the 200 back final and had their best freestyler, Jack Alexy, finish more than a second and a half behind the world record-setting Pan Zhanle of China in the 100 free final.

China has questions surrounding their star breaststroker, Qin Haiyang, who has been off all week. However, Qin did clock 58.93 in the semis of the 100 breast, which was faster than what Italian Nicolo Martinenghi went to win gold in the final. China also has a relatively weak butterfly leg, with Sun Jiajun missing the 100 fly semis this morning.

Italy also has a butterfly problem—they didn’t have anyone contest the heats this morning, and the top time from anyone on their roster this year is 52.00 from Giacomo Carini.

The same goes for the Brits, with James Guy finishing well shy of the semis in the 100 fly prelims in 52.23—though Guy is known for stepping up big on relays.

For Australia, the issue is backstroke—Isaac Cooper and Bradley Woodward were both well above 54 seconds in the 100 back heats and didn’t advance.

Then we come to France. Yohann Ndoye-Brouard performed well in the 100 back, making the final, and this morning he set a new lifetime best of 52.48 leading off the mixed medley relay.

We know what Leon Marchand has been doing all week, including winning the 200 breast with the second-fastest swim ever. Last year at Worlds, Marchand split 59-flat on the relay. Given his form this week, 58-low with a takeover isn’t out of the question, even though this event is not a focus of his.

Butterfly is locked in for France with Grousset, who is a gold medal contender in the 100 fly tomorrow, not to mention his ability to step up and split 49-low on the relay, which he did last year.

The big question for the French is freestyle, which is interesting considering it used to be their biggest strength 10-15 years ago.

Behind Grousset, their second freestyler in Paris was Rafael Fente-Damers, who went 48.82 in the 100 free prelims. The team missed the 4×100 free relay final, with Hadrien Salvan leading off in 49.2 and their top split being Fente-Demers at 48.3.

It seems like a certainty that France will turn to Florent Manaudou on the anchor leg. He ripped a 47.90 at the French Championships in June, and would’ve slotted into the final of the free relay if France qualified.

The math tells us it’s USA vs China for gold, and then France and Italy are the frontrunners for the bronze medal.

Men’s Medley Relay Add-Ups – Fastest Flat-Starts In Paris

Each swimmer’s time is their fastest flat-start at these Olympic Games unless otherwise noted. This includes prelims, semis and finals, and relay lead-offs. For the 100 fly, it’s only this morning’s prelims.

*Marchand didn’t swim the 100 breast in Paris—this time is his fastest in 2024 (the fastest from a Frenchman this year on the Olympic roster)
**Carini didn’t swim the 100 fly in Paris—this time is his fastest in 2024 (the fastest from an Italian this year on the Olympic roster)

If we throw in Manaudou’s 47.90 from mid-June on France’s anchor leg, their add-up comes in at 3:30.09, leapfrogging Italy and firmly entrenching themselves as the bronze medal favorites. However, doing so isn’t entirely fair, given that several of these swimmers have produced faster times this year than they have in Paris.

There are several variables still at play here. What happens in the mixed medley relay final, what happens in the 100 fly, and then in the actual men’s medley relay, who can step up with their fastest swim in the final. Several of the splits listed above came from heats or semis (outside of the 100 fly), including China’s Xu and Qin, and Great Britain’s Peaty.