Tokyo Bronze Medalist Li Bingjie Misses Paris 2024 400 Freestyle Final

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

WOMEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS

Top 8

  1. Katie Ledecky (USA) – 4:02.19
  2. Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – 4:02.46
  3. Erika Fairweather (NZL) – 4:02.55
  4. Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 4:02.65
  5. Jamie Perkins (AUS) – 4:03.30
  6. Paige Madden (USA) – 4:03.34
  7. Maria Fernanda Costa (BRA) – 4:03.47
  8. Isabel Gose (GER) – 4:03.83

The first major miss of the 2024 Olympic Games is upon us, as China’s Li Bingjie placed ninth in the prelims of the women’s 400 freestyle. Li was the Tokyo bronze medalist in the event, as well as the Asian record holder and ninth-fastest performer of all-time.

Li’s miss is a testament of how fast the women’s 400 free has gotten internationally. She posted a time of 4:03.96, which would have beaten out Tang Muhan‘s 4:04.07 that got her eighth in Tokyo prelims. This year, the last person to make finals was Germany’s Isabel Gose, who went 4:03.83. Li’s prelims time would have also made finals comfortably at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 World Championships.

At the Tokyo games, Li was one of the fastest performers in prelims. She went a time of 4:01.57 to finish second, and then went 4:01.08 to set her best time at break the Asian record.

Li still has the 200 free, 800 free, and 1500 free left to swim in this meet. She was a 2023 World Championships silver medalist in the latter two events, and will be favored to medal in both races during Paris as well.

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Miss M
3 hours ago

Surprised by this for Li Bingjie – it was very fast.

Reinforces Pallister’s decision to drop this one. She would have had to go lights out this morning to make finals… the fatigue would have to be a factor later in the meet with the 800/1500. Bonus that Perkins swam brilliantly too.

Smiling Steve
4 hours ago

The WORLD AQUATICS site shows 10 swimmers qualifying for the final, not 8.

Admin
Reply to  Smiling Steve
3 hours ago

That site is wrong.

Diehard
5 hours ago

American Kieran missed too and he was bronze in Tokyo too

SJS
5 hours ago

Wow.

Didn’t expect LB to medal in the 4free, but this may be a sign of what’s to come in the 8free.

CHINADA
Reply to  SJS
5 hours ago

Let’s hope it’s all downhill!

TomDeanBoxall
Reply to  SJS
4 hours ago

On a more optimistic side of things, maybe she’s just really honed in on that 8 and 15 FR instead.

Plus, I think she just moreso misjudged the pace – if she swum a 4:07 I’d be worried, but a 4:03 would’ve made finals any other year.

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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