YOU CANNOT QUESTION MEGAN ROMANO’S RELAY ABILITIES!
Megan Romano stepped up on Sunday morning’s prelims at the 2013 FINA World Championships and made official what we’ve been saying: she is a relay monster, and needs to be on every American freestyle relay between now and Rio, regardless of what happens at trials.
She split a 53.24 in prelims on the anchor leg, and that was enough to earn her a spot on the finals’ relay, along with Missy Franklin, Natalie Coughlin, and Shannon Vreeland. They’ll need her to do it again if the Americans are going to have any shot at holding off the defending Olympic champion Australians.
The Americans chose Coughlin over Manuel, despite on actual “block-to-finish” time Manuel being a bit faster.
The Australians, meanwhile, will have an all-star lineup of Cate Campbell leading off, Bronte behind her, then Emma McKeon and Alicia Coutts finishing things off. McKeon got the call-up after splitting 53.71 in prelims on a rolling start.
The full relay lineups:
Germany: Brandt/Steffen/Wenk/Schreiber
Russia: Popova/Andreeva/Baklakova/Nesterova
Canada: Poon/Mainville/van Landeghem/Cheverton
USA: Franklin/Coughlin/Vreeland/Romano
Australia: Cate Campbell/Bronte Capbell/McKeon/Coutts
Sweden: Coleman/Hansson/Sjostrom/Linborg
Netherlands: Bouwens/Heemskerk/Dekker/Kromowidjojo
Japan: Ueda/Yamaguchi/Uchida/Matsumoto
Would love to hear the explanation given to Manuel.
Suzzie1022- I don’t know what your problem is- sounds like your criticisms/issues are a little harsh. Find me another female swimmer who has preformed like Nat over the past 15 years. From 1998 to now, she has been a great role model the US and she still has every right to be mentioned and acknowledged for her accomplishments.
BOOM. Coughlin wins the relay for the United States.
I think it takes four to win a relay. If anything, Romano deserves the biggest spotlight.
Have something against Coughlin? She outswam Vreeland and most likely Franklin as well. As Coughlin said, she let’s her swimming do the talking. You clearly just like to talk.
No, you’re right. I just meant that her leg was completely unexpected, whereas I optimistically expected the other 3 to swim that way.
I hope that split from Coughlin showed a lot of the “haters” on here that experience at meets like this is definitely important…
Teri left Natalie off of the relay when she was the head coach in London. Teri has proved herself as a fair member of the relay decision making process with that decision. To the guy that said Natalie “has never delivered on a relay.” I believe she was 1:56 leading the 800 in Beijing which would have won the individual 200. But, that’s just one example of probably 20 or more INTERNATIONAL relays this girl has been o. In the last 12 years. I love the comment before me from usswimfan and want to reiterate, RELAX. Our US coaches know what they are doing. Teri and Dave have more than proven this.
Let’s hope this race is different then all the others in which Natalie faded away last 15 meters..
Natalie swam second leg in 800 free relay and was in high 156s. Individual winner was Pellegrini with 154!!
Actually – pretty sure she went 1:57 with a relay pick-up on that relay – suited. Hoff anchored in 1:54 – for bronze Her 1:56 was a lead-off the year before. Her relay spit wasn’t one of the 10 fastest in the heat. So, in this case – delivering on an Olympic relay could be argued either way. Not going to argue your points, just setting the record straight.
USC and Cal definitely would love to have Simone Manuel swim for their schools. As such, the biased purely self-interested move for both Salo and McKeever would be to have Simone swim on the relay rather than Coughlin. Natalie’s coached by Durden now, not Teri. McKeever was still Coughlin’s personal coach last year in London when she chose Lia Neal over Natalie on the relays. Dave and Teri have obviously seen something in training to make this move since Simone on the relay would definitely benefit both in recruiting.
It was athens in 2004. Her lead off 200 free was faster than the gold medal winning 200 free time.
You’re right. Coughlin led off the 800 free relay in 2004 with a 1.57.74. Camelia Potec won the individual 200m free in 1.58.03. (Amazing how quickly the event has moved on).
2005 Montreal:
54.31 leadoff – faster than her individual silver in the 100m free. She also beat Jodie Henry, the champion from the 100m and WR holder, on the leadoff leg.
1.58.82 leadoff – gold in the individual 200 was 1.58.60
2007 Melbourne:
1.56.43 leadoff – good enough for bronze behind Manaudou’s 1.55.52 WR in the 200m free final and faster than Pelligrini’s WR from the 200m semis.
YES. Coughlin has swam some of her best times on relays.
Somewhat reminiscent of London 2012 when Lia Neal and Natalie were in a similar situation. I’m sure the staff is aware of their policy and are consistent in the rationale. Surprised to see all the emotion coming from some of these posts about not wanting Natalie on…people – RELAX, believe in the coaching staff.
They replace old dice in a craps game. New ones are more reliable.
I want to see Romano hit 52.8 on a split and Missy break 53.0 from a start
This is absurd!! Simone has earned that spot. Don’t care what Natalie has done in the past,Simone is the present and future of USA Swimming-and she out split Natalie.
Big mistake.
It’s probably not that big of a deal. They were fairly close time wise and they haven’t seen Simone swim enough to know how she’ll handle the pressure. I personally think she would have done fine, but these coaches definitely give the nod to the experienced stars.
They gave the nod to Lia Neal last year at the Olympics, and Lia did great. Natalie went even slower this year than she did at the Olympics when she was not put on the relay at night.
54.09 (with a relay start) and 54.22 (with a flat start) are not close in time.