Dressel, Kolesnikov In for 400 Freestyle Relay Final (Relay Lineups)

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Predictably, Caeleb Dressel will join the US men’s 400 freestyle relay during this morning’s final. Dressel, the fastest man to ever swim the 100 freestyle in a textile suit, holds a personal best of 46.96. 

On the relay, Dressel will join Blake Pieroni (47.71), Bowe Becker (47.59) and Zach Apple (47.19), all of whom participated in the prelims session this morning. In prelims, the team finished second overall in a time of 3:11.33, only coming in behind Italy (3:10.29). With Dressel, the Americans will look to claim gold and the team will be chasing the World and Olympic Record of 3:08.24 that was set by the USA in 2008. 

Individually, Dressel will also be chasing the 100 freestyle world record, as he is leading-off the American Relay. Dressel’s best time of 46.96 currently stands just .05 shy of the 100 freestyle world record of 46.91. Notably, Dressel’s Australian counterpart Kyle Chalmers won’t be able to chase that record today, as he is anchoring his country’s relay.

Italy looks to be the top challenger to the Americans after shattering their national record this morning. The team will replace Santo Condorelli with Thomas Ceccon in tonight’s final, keeping the remainder of the order the same as prelims. Ceccon holds a personal best of 47.98 in the individual 100 freestyle, and should provide a slight improvement over Condorelli’s split of 47.90.

Australia, France, and Russia should also challenge for a medal here. The Australians will maintain most of their lineup from the morning session, only replacing Cameron McEvoy with Matthew Temple. Likewise, France will only swap out Charles Rihoux for veteran Florent Manaudou. They opted to drop Rihoux, who had the swim of his life in prelims to swim 48.27, over Clement Mignon, who was 48.58 on the leadoff leg. Manaudou’s best recent flat start is 48.58.

Russia will swim out of lane 8, bringing in Kliment Kolesnikov, while also altering their order to put Andrei Minakov on the lead-off leg. 

Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay Lineups

• World Record: USA (Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones, Lezak) – 3:08.24 (2008)
• Olympic Record: USA (Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones, Lezak) – 3:08.24 (2008)
• World Junior Record: USA (Magahey, Urlando, Chaney, Foster) – 3:15.80 (2019)
• 2016 Olympic Champion: USA (Dressel, Phelps, Held, Adrian) – 3:09.92
• SwimSwam Event Preview – Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay

1. Canada (HAYDEN Brent, LIENDO EDWARDS Joshua, KISIL Yuri,  THORMEYER Markus)
2. Brazil (CORREIA Breno, SPAJARI Pedro, SANTOS Gabriel, CHIERIGHINI Marcelo)
3. Australia (TEMPLE Matthew, INCERTI Zac, GRAHAM Alexander, CHALMERS Kyle)
4. Italy (MIRESSI Alessandro, CECCON Thomas, ZAZZERI Lorenzo, FRIGO Manuel)
5. United States of America (DRESSEL Caeleb, PIERONI Blake, BECKER Bowen, APPLE Zach)
6. France (GROUSSET Maxime, MANAUDOU Florent, MIGNON Clement, METELLA Mehdy) 
7. Hungary (MILAK Kristof, SZABO Szebasztian, BOHUS Richard, NEMETH Nandor)
8. ROC (MINAKOV Andrei, GRINEV Vladislav, MOROZOV Vladimir, KOLESNIKOV Kliment)