2024 Paris Summer Olympics
The line-ups for the women’s and men’s 4x100m freestyle relay finals have been announced and there aren’t many surprises.
We wrote about the intriguing decision the U.S. had to make about which qualifiers would advance to the finals, and now we know the answer: Simone Manuel and Caleb Dressel will anchor the U.S. relay tonight.
It’s a familiar position for Manuel, who has served as key anchor at several points throughout his career, but it’s new for Dressel, who has often been used as a leadoff hitter depending on the strength of his starts.
As expected, the Australian women’s team started with Molly O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack. The only surprise was the selection of Meg Harris as anchor rather than Emma McKeown. Apart from that change, the lineup is exactly the same as when Australia set the world record last summer.
China has replaced Yu Yiting with Zhang Yufei, who will hit a double tonight (along with Gretchen Walsh and Tori Husk for Team USA).
Clean water seemed to be the theme of the night’s competition, and most of the teams decided to put their fastest swimmers at the front, with Yang Junxuan rising from the anchor position to the top, as did Kate Douglas and Sarah Sjostrom.
The Canadian women’s team started with Maggie McNeill in the lead, but if we look at the third leg, Summer McIntosh will also be competing in this relay. McNeill will compete in the 100m butterfly semi-finals at the start of the session, but McIntosh has just finished the 400m freestyle final and is expected to be aiming for a medal. She didn’t handle it well in Fukuoka last summer, but how will she do here?
The men’s heats will likely be all about the world record. China’s relay will be led by Pan Jianle. The world record holder looked in good form this morning with a time of 46.98 seconds. Josh Liend also posted a strong anchor leg time of 47.25 seconds this morning to put Canada’s relay in the lead.
Australia are one of the few medal contenders with their fastest man (Kyle Chalmers) as the anchor, but tonight they replaced William Yang with Kai Taylor.
Great Britain also made a change, replacing Alexander Colquhoun with Matt Richards.
As expected, Italy will add strength to their relay team, which finished 6th in the heats, with Alessandro Milesi and Thomas Ceccon, and tonight the focus will be on the defending silver medallists in lane 7.
With both the women’s and men’s 100m freestyle world record holders competing, the first leg of the relay is expected to be over quickly.
Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final Lineup:
UK Anna Hopkin Eva O’Callo Lucy Hope Freya Anderson France Beryl Gastaldello Charlotte Bonnet Marie-Amble Maureux Marie Wattel China Yang Junshuan Chen Yujie Zhang Yufei Wu Qingfeng Australia Molly O’Callaghan Shayna Jack Emma McKeon Meg Harris USA Kate Douglas Gretchen Walsh Tori Huske Simone Manuel Sweden Sarah Sjöström Michelle Coleman Sarah Genevik Louise Hanson Canada Maggie McNeill Taylor Luck Summer McIntosh Penny Oleksiak Italy Sofia Morini Chiara Tarantino Sarah Curtis Emma Virginia Menicucci
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final Lineup:
Hungary Nandor Nemeth Sebastian Szabó Adam Yazo Hubert Koss Canada Josh Liend Yuri Kisir Finlay Knox Javier Acevedo Great Britain Matthew Richards Jacob Whittle Tom Dean Duncan Scott China Pan Jianle Ji Xinjie Chen Jenelle Wang Haoyu Australia Jack Cartwright Flynn Southam Kai Taylor Kyle Chalmers USA Jack Alexie Chris Guiliano Hunter Armstrong Kaeleb Dressel Italy Alessandro Milesi Thomas Ceccon Paolo Conte Bonin Manuel Frigo Germany Josha Salkow Rafael Miroslav Luca Armbruster Peter Varjasi
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