The men’s 4×200 freestyle relay line-up for the Aussies in last night’s final was composed of Thomas Fraser-Holmes, David McKeon, Daniel Smith and Mack Horton, with the squad finishing 4th in a time of 7:04.18.
During the race, the Aussies were in the mix through the first two legs, but ultimately wound up behind the gold medal-winning USA (7:00.66), silver medal-winning Great Britain (7:03.13) and bronze medal-winning Japan (7:03.50) when all was said and done.
Although an improvement from its 5th place finish at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the 4th place result for the Australian 4×200 freestyle relay from last night was still a disappointment. In some minds, the fact that one of the green and gold’s best freestylers, Cameron McEvoy, was left off the relay, virtually forfeited any medal hopes.
Instead of placing McEvoy on the relay, Australian coaches decided to save “The Professor” to maximize rest for his own individual 100m freestyle event. As such, Smith was substituted in for the night version of the 4×200 relay. Splits for the final four were as follows:
Fraser-Holmes – 1:45.81
McKeon – 1:45.63
Smith – 1:47.37
Horton – 1:45.37
Of note, McEvoy won his nation’s Olympic Trials in the individual 200m freestyle event, tying Fraser-Holmes for the win in a time of 1:45.63. He was slated to include the event on his Rio repertoire, but decided mid-July that he would drop the 200m freestyle individually and abandon a shot at becoming the first Australian in Olympic history to win 6 medals at a single Games.
Smith finished 4th at the Australian Trials in a time of 1:46.87, but mustered just a 1:47.37 rolling start in Rio in the final, a time at least 2 seconds (most likely more) behind what McEvoy would have been able to contribute. With the squad losing out on bronze by less than a second and on silver by just over, it’s reasonable for one to question the staff’s decision to leave McEvoy off the relay.
Ironically, McEvoy would finish in 7th place in the men’s 100m freestyle and ended up being a non-factor in that race, the one for which he was saved for rest.
McEvoy being left off the 4×200 relay “was the decision of a group of coaches and that includes Jacco (Verhaeren) the head coach,” the swimmer told the Australian press.
‘When it comes from a bunch of coaches with such a wealth of experience, I trust their decision. I respect it and I understand it too.’
Cameron McEvoy is an elite swimmer and should have been able to recover by the next evening of competition. Michael Phelps swam the 100m Fly final and backed up for the 4x200m final less than an hour later. So I would have though a full day rest would be ok. It might have also stopped him thinking about the 100m final a bit and given him a better ‘head space’ for the 100m final. The Australian coach categorically said he was not sick and just got stage fright? That is a worry in itself? It would make more sense if he was sick? The US swimmers did not seem to suffer from stage fright. Ultimately, swimming is mainly an individual… Read more »
This I think is the difference between Australia & the US. The Americans treat the relays as important as the individual events. they always swim their best swimmers in the relays. Ledecky in the W4X100, DiRado in the W4X200, Phelps in the M4X100 & M4X200 etc. No-one can tell me a team of McKeon or TFH, McEvoy, Chalmers & Horton would not have got 2nd. Groves should have got a medal in the 4×200, would not have had a different result, but would have swam much faster then Neale.
Hindsight really is 20/20. During the heats, Leah Neale dropped a huge PB of 1:57.06; by logic, you’d assume she can maintain or even split a 1:56 leg in the final if she had a flying start. That was what the coaches based it on. They couldnt have predicted that Neale would have gone almost a full second slower from her heats to fnal.
And swimming Groves right after her 200 Fly race where she emptied the tank? Not sure that’s so smart
I understood the decision when I heard it and even now I have no real qaulms with it. A gold medal result in the 100 took priority over a silver/bronze in the 4×200.
It’s tough though. This relay was Thomas Fraser-Holmes’ and David McKeon’s best shot at a medal out of all their events, you kind of feel like they deserved to come away from these games and this four year cycle with something around their necks, especially Fraser-Holmes. I did expect the Australians to podium.
No hindsight was needed. It was clear McEvoy should have swum.
Which is worse, winning your nation’s 200 free Trials and then not swimming in the 800 free relay in favor of an individual race, or not swimming the 200 free in your nation’s Trials and being chosen to swim the 800 free relay because your nation needed you to help the Team? There have been so many complaints on this website about Bowman choosing Phelps to help the relay win gold, but the effort needed to swim a decent 200 free so soon after an exhausting 200 fly final (at 31 yrs old) might have derailed his quest to win an historic 4th consecutive 200 IM. Apparently McEvoy has been sick, so I know it’s not a fair comparison, but… Read more »
Read the linked article. He clearly said he wanted to swim the relay.
Hindsight is 20/20, but are we expected to believe the coaches made this call by themselves, with no input from McEvoy? Seems unlikely. Now he may be sick, slightly off, or whatever, but we have the US relays where at least one swimmer is griping about being left off… So i guess i’m not buying that McEvoy had no input, or that the coaches thought he needed the rest. Nothing wrong with wanting to go for an individual gold, but just own it…. We’re not idiots.
Yes, I’ve been reading plenty of revisionism on this one from some Aussies …. as well as the Groves non-inclusion on women’s 4×200. They overlook one cold hard fact; McEvoy’s record is erratic on this relay (stark contrast to his 4×100/Med outings) and he has never split below 1.56 and has tends to die badly coming home. He’s been known to drop in 1.48s. Add him being “off” health-wise as well as form …. not the done deal they are assuming.
One can also throw in the scenario that the selected 4 went into the final with far less pressure of medal expectations and knew that the only way they were going to get themselves in the medal picture was… Read more »