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)
- Full aquatics schedule
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- Entry Lists
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- Day 8 Finals Heat Sheet
The United States, after much hemming-and-hawing from the public, have gone by the book for the men’s 400 medley relay, using Olympic Trials winner and 4th-place finisher in the individual 100 breaststroke Michael Andrew to fill out the men’s 400 medley relay on Sunday morning in Tokyo.
That was the biggest question mark for any country coming into the final. American coaches have been under pressure after multiple relay decisions haven’t worked out, with the US missing the podium in Olympic relays for the first (men’s 4×200 free relay) and 2nd (mixed 4×100 medley relay) time in history. Now Andrew, who was slower than his Olympic Trials times in both the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM so far at this meet, will have a chance to validate their choice.
Both he and butterflier Caeleb Dressel will enter the race coming off the finals of the 50 free.
Otherwise, things to note:
- the swap of anchors for China, adding He Junyi on their freestyle leg
- Canada has brought back the same 4, leaving Markus Thormeyer on the backstroke leg over Cole Pratt and Yuri Kisil on the freestyle leg over Brent Hayden
- Italy has stuck with the same 4 swimmers that gave them the best time in prelims by almost a second-and-a-half.
Full Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay Finals Lineups:
- USA (Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, Zach Apple)
- Japan (Ryosuke Irie, Ryuya Mura, Naoki Mizunuma, Katsumi Nakamura)
- Russian Olympic Committee (Evgeny Rylov, Kiril Progoda, Andrei Minakov, Kliment Kolesnikov
- Italy (Thomas Ceccon, Nicolo Martinenghi, Federico Burdisso, Alessandro Miressi)
- Great Britain (Luke Greenbank, Adam Peaty, James Guy, Duncan Scott)
- China (Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei, Sun Jiajun, He Junyi)
- Australia (Mitch Larkin, Zac Stubblety-Cook, Matt Temple, Kyle Chalmers)
- Canada (Markus Thormeyer, Gabe Mastromatteo, Josh Liendo, Yuri Kisil)
Well, there goes the streak in the u.s. medley. Guessing Andrew goes 59 low
sike
Just for a reference of your misprediction, the US won gold and broke WR. Andrew 58 low.
USA is invincible in this event…
MA has not had a good meet so I hope for his sake that he really shows up for this relay
I predict that he will show up. I do not think he will refuse to swim the breaststroke leg. But obviously the US will not medal if MA does not show up causing the US to be disqualified.
MA is going to be a super interesting choice. He could be the reason they win or the reason they miss the medals
Whether he does well or not, he earned that spot being the fastest US swimmer in the finals.
The coaches are there to put the best 4 on the relay at the time of the relay. Michael Andrew definitely was the fastest swimmer at Trials but it’s debatable if he is now. No one deserves anything.