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
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
SEE DAY 1 TOP-5 HERE
SEE DAY 2 TOP-5 HERE
SEE DAY 3 TOP-5 HERE
SEE DAY 4 TOP-5 HERE
SEE DAY 5 TOP-5 HERE
SEE DAY 6 TOP-5 HERE
SWIMSWAM’S TOP 5 SWIMS OF THE 2020 OLYMPIC GAMES: DAY 7
#5 – W 50 Free: Emma McKeon has been on a roll at these Olympic Games, and she continued that in the 50 free semi-finals, setting a new Olympic record at 24.00
#4 – W 200 Back: Kaylee McKeown successfully completes the backstroke sweep, getting her hand on the wall first at 2:04.68 to win gold in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes
#3 – W 800 Free: Katie Ledecky won her 3rd-straight Olympic title in the 800 free, touching at 8:12.57 tonight to notch her 7th career Olympic gold and 10th overall medal
#2 – Mixed Medley Relay: In it’s first Olympic iteration, the mixed medley relay did not disappoint (unless you’re USA, but we’ll get to that), showing multiple lead changes while Great Britain swam an incredible 4 legs, breaking the world record in 3:37.58
#1 – M 100 Fly: This ended up being a lot tighter of a race than most would have expected, with Dressel going out fast and Milak coming home like a freight train, nearly catching the world record-holder and touching 2nd at 49.62. Dressel was able to hold off Milak and dip under his own world record, touching for gold at 49.45
BELLY FLOP OF THE DAY: Team USA Coaching on Mixed Medley Relay
We’ve all been trying to do the math on the mixed medley relay, especially since the USA had so many different options… but we don’t see how the lineup we put forward could have added up to gold paper. The differential between the breaststroke/freestyle legs just wasn’t there, and having a female butterflier swimming from behind with all those waves doesn’t set them up for success. A tough race to watch for Team USA
HOT TOPIC OF THE DAY: 400 Medley Relay – Can USA Hold on?
We know that Team USA is on form and looks primed for both medley relays. But so do the other countries that will challenge for gold. In the women’s relay, if Lydia Jacoby can put the US in a lead over Australia and try to maintain through fly so Abbey Weitzeil has a chance to hold off Cate Campbell, I think our chances are good.
In the men’s race, Ryan Murphy obviously has to get a strong lead so Michael Andrew can try and hold off Adam Peaty. I think Dressel can get slightly ahead of an on-fire James Guy, which leaves Zach Apple to hold off Duncan Scott. I think Zapple is up to the task, but we’ve seen Duncan Scott go crazy on the relay anchor before, and he will be hungry for gold.
Isn’t Katie Ledecky the first US woman ever to 3 peat?
Tough relay to call for the men
Back- Does Greenbank for 53.7 again? Then ROC and USA are 1.5 to 1.9 ahead
Breast- can USA get Andrew to 58 low? Russia has not looked good here. Peaty 56.7? So now dead heat with USA and Brits? Russia a second back?
Fly- Dressel 49.3 and Guy/Minakov 50.0, USA up by more than half a second?
Free- then can Scott go 46.2 again? Or will Apple be 47.4 and Scott has to only be 46.9?
Very interesting relay and the US way outside with a clear lane of water….
Or does Luke pop out a 52.9 and GB wins going away?
I think Andrew could MAYBE do 58 low if he didn’t have the 50 free final to also do.
I am unable to recall a more bizarre (or poorer) coaching decision that the construction of the mixed medley relay.
It is time to recognize the US coaches for their determined efforts in denying US relay Swimmers hardware.
Gold medal bad decision:
Silver medal bad decision:
Bronze medal bad decision.
- Manuel anchoring the Womens 4×100 Free. Like the Mens 4×200, this also undermined the results at Trials, which is so harsh to those
… Read more »While I agree the MMR line-up was questionable and deserves the Monday morning quarterbacking it is receiving, I do think the swimmers bear some of the responsibility in this case. To be clear, I’m NOT referring to the swimmers that performed in the relay. But, I am referring to the men’s breaststrokers as their performances were less than confidence inspiring and put the coaches in a position of feeling like they needed to role the dice.
The coaches lost on that one. But let’s not forget that an event which appeared to be a US strength at OT quickly became a liability for the MMR at the Olympics.
Re: Simone. I’ll strongly disagree with you here. She was 52.9… Read more »
I think you’re pretty much right. It was something of a gamble on the coaches’ part — had Simone swum a 54.1 split and had the U.S. lost bronze to the Netherlands we would all be screaming about how Greg Meehan showed favoritism to his own swimmer, but it did seem to be the right move in the end given Simone’s performance. Though it’s equally true that given the fact that the U.S. beat the Netherlands by over a second, using Olivia Smoliga, Katie de Loof, and maybe even Allison Schmitt (or Katie Ledecky for that matter) would have yielded the same result.
And I do like how that gave Simone the opportunity to win a medal at these games. Hopefully that helps her in her training issues.
The lessons learned from the Tokyo 2021 Olympics is/are to avoid session doubles as much as humanly possible:
Men’s 100 meter/200 meter freestyle
Women’s 200 meter/1500 meter freestyle
One would think common sense would prevail especially on relays.
Manuel was a good decision
Can someone please explain to me, how Chalmers got the night off. But McKeown and McKeon had to backup and swim the Mixed final…..that’s so bizarre
this relay should always be anchored by a woman. there’s only about 5 seconds difference so its not worth putting a man on it. while other legs have changed across teams, all the world beating teams have been anchored by a woman
2015 worlds – GBR (MMWW)
2017 worlds – USA (MWMW)
2018 pan pacs – AUS (MMWW)
2019 worlds – AUS (MMWW)
2020 wr – CHN (MMWW)
2020 olympics – GBR (WMMW)
Additionnaly breastroke should be swum by a guy, since it’s the stroke with the most difference in times between men and women
Traditionaly you’d go MMWW, like in a mixed free relay but depending on your team, your country etc, you might see a better outcome by using the WMMW (especially since the 100 back is really on the rise on the women’s side)
In the end it all about maths, how much time you “lose” on the women’s side and how much you “gain” on the men’s side
Duncan Scott to do it
Brits odd on for the medley relay. Unbackable
any forecasts for men’s 4×100 medley tomorrow?
I think that Peaty’s breastroke leg is going to be too tough for the US to overcome, especially now that James Guy is within a second of Dressel on the fly. Great Britain has to be the favorite here.
I’m not even sure who the US Throws out there for breast. Wilson has been off, MA has the 50 free and I have to think it’ll impact his swim, and Fink would be a wildcard out of left field.
Peaty, Guy and Scott have only gotten faster as the week progresses. Bring on the fireworks!
Guy has been fire.
…and Guy gets fan points for his big emotional reactions, celebrations.
What a debacle for the mixed medley relay. As I predicted it would take a world record to win it. The problem in the Olympics is the scheduling of it right after the 50s. I think it was very entertaining more so than the 1500, but it is too bad we won’t have the best performances due to the scheduling issues.
Where do you place it…..maybe the evening b4
And when they bring in the Mixed Free relay….where’s that go, in terms of scheduling?
Really need an extra day added. That would make a ton of difference
At the least could have had women’s 800 free in between.
This
No reason not to
Here was last night’s order of events in local time
10:30 – M 100 fly final
10:37 – W 200 back final
10:49 – W 800 free final
11:11 – M 50 free semifinal (two heats)
11:32 – W 50 free semifinal (two heats)
11:43 – Mixed medley final
The problem with moving the W 800 free to after the W 50 free is twofold. First, you now put someone like Caeleb Dressel in a position where he would only have 20 minutes between the 100 fly final and the 50 free semi, and a big chunk of that would be eaten up by mandatory participation in the medal ceremony. Second, I would bet… Read more »
I just thought our outstanding US swim coaches were not able to do simple math. It really was a horrible choice. Hard to believe there was not something else pushing their choice, except there were so many other (and better) ways to go.
Yeah the schedule was unfortunate for some countries.
Team Australia had 3 doubles out of 4 legs (200 back, 100 fly and 50 Free) and missed gold by 1.33 seconds. Kaylee was 0.65 off her individual, Emma was 0.4 off her previous 100 free split this week, Temple actually swam similar to his individual but was 0.7 off his best.
With a fresh team Aus might have challenged for gold.
Edit: I did the maths wrong on Temple. He was only about .1 off his best when you consider the relay start. But even so, would have been bloody close.