The American women have a commanding preliminaries performance in the women’s 400 free relay where they took the top seed by almost two seconds with a 3:31.02.
See all of the finals lineups here.
Despite their margin, the Americans now that the Netherlands, who swam the heats without Inge Dekker or Ranomi Kromowidjojo, are lurking as the 7th seed, so they’re still pushing the envelope with two changes before finals.
The prelims relay:
- Natalie Coughlin – 51.93
- Amy Bilquist – 53.05
- Madison Kennedy – 52.52
- Amanda Weir – 53.52
The finals relay:
- Natalie Coughlin
- Abbey Weitzeil
- Madison Kennedy
- Shannon Vreeland
We mentioned the significant changes to the Dutch relay, putting them in gold medal contention (they are the World Record holders in the event and were dominating in the 800 free relay earlier this week), but the second-seeded Danish women stayed put with their foursome of MIe Nielsen, Julie Levisen, Pernille Blume, and Jeanette Ottesen. While they’ve got the potential to be faster than the 3:32.95 that they swam in prelims, the two second gap appears to be too much on paper for them to make up. They will battle for bronze with China (3:34.12), Italy (3:33.65), and Brazil (3:34.51).
Great swim for team USA, but the Dutch were just spectacular!
A 50.58 split for golden girl Femke Heemskerk and a 51.01 for Kromowidjojo…..
What a super new line up for Team Usa – if they would add Manuel and Franklin to Vreeland and Coughlin , that would even put more pressure on the Dutch team . That will come next year in Kazan i beleive . This relay is special , hope Usa wins it – The men did get a bronze here so the women got to do better and they can . GO GO GO girls .