2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Day 1 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
After this morning’s prelims there were bound to be changes to the women’s 400 free relay lineups for finals. Many teams didn’t utilize their top sprinters, including the Americans, Canadians and the Netherlands. Check out the full relay lineups for tonight below (listed in their respective lanes for the final).
- Japan (M.Uchida, R.Ikee, M.Yamaguchi, Y.Matsumoto)
- Netherlands (M.Steenbergen, F.Heemskerk, I.Dekker, R.Kromowidjojo)
- Canada (S.Mainville, C.van Landeghem, T.Ruck, P.Oleksiak)
- Australia (E.McKeon, B.Elmslie, B.Campbell, C.Campbell)
- United States (S.Manuel, A.Weitzeil, D.Vollmer, K.Ledecky)
- Italy (E.Ferraioli, S.Di Pietro, A.Pezzato, F.Pellegrini)
- Sweden (M.Coleman, S.Sjostrom, I.Marko-Varga, L.Hansson)
- France (B.Gastaldello, C.Bonnet, M.Cini, A.Santamans)
Five of the eight teams in the final made changes from the morning, with the Americans the only team to exchange more than one. Out comes Amanda Weir, Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt and in comes Abbey Weitzeil, Simone Manuel and Dana Vollmer. Weitzeil and Manuel are no surprise, as they finished 1-2 at Trials, but Vollmer is somewhat of a surprising add after finishing 6th at Trials. Weir was a solid 53.60 lead-off this morning, but the coaches decided to gamble and go with the experienced Vollmer.
The Australians, as expected, exchanged Madison Wilson (who led off in 54.11) for Emma McKeon, while the Canadians exchanged Michelle Williams (53.73 morning split) for Penny Oleksiak. Both McKeon and Oleksiak will also swim the 100 fly semis tonight.
The Netherlands took out Maud van der Meer (53.88 morning split) in exchange for their top gun Ranomi Kromowidjojo. Though van der Meer swam faster than Inge Dekker (54.75 lead-off) and Femke Heemskerk (54.00 split) this morning, the coaches decided to go with the veterans and have faith they’ll come through in the final.
The other change came from Sweden, who exchanged Ida Lindborg (54.77 split) for Ida Marko-Varga.
Check out the full relay lineups here.
The lineup of final game shold be 1st-4th at 100m trial. Ledecky is a long distance swimmer. Why was she in there? That’s weird. Weird decision.
Ledecky split a 52.6 in the morning, and that was with a slowish transition (.3 rt), so I don’t know why you guys are surprised.
Weir has been more consistent than Vollmer, a questionable call but hey if she splits 52 all is forgiven
Given the benefit of a relay start and the added excitment of swimming in the evening final, Amanda’ morning swim of 53,60, should have translated to a 53.00 or even a sub 53. This would have been at worst equal to, and probably better than the 53.11 that Vollmer split this evening. Taking nothing away from Dana, Amanda is not with-out her time on the international stage; having held the American records in the 100M Free LC, and as a member of the last 4X100 Free relay team too. Plus Amanda would have had the added luxury of being fully rested this evening; however even given the improvement that Amanda could have likely given the team; the deficit was simply… Read more »
I wonder what Vollmer did in practice that made them make this call.
Poor Weir. She was amazing today and is out?
Makes absolutely no sense for all the reasons mentioned. The order for the US also makes little sense.
I’m guessing since Vollmer may have been short on endurance through the three rounds of the 100 fly at trials, she didn’t want to do both prelims and finals for the 100 free relay. I’m surprised though that she was put directly in the final rather than prelim-only. She must’ve been showing in practice that her freestyle is on point.
Weir is FRESH…. Momma Vollmer will be with tired legs after the 100 Fly…
Not sure if I like this call. Especially after what Weir did this morning.