2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Rio Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
There’s only one burning question in regards to the lineups for tonight’s women’s 800 free relay, and that is who will swim the fourth leg for the Americans? The first three swimmers are all but confirmed, and have proven themselves here in Rio.
Katie Ledecky won the 200 free last night, so she’ll swim on the finals relay. So will Leah Smith, who finished 3rd at Trials but proved herself enough in the 400 free winning bronze to bypass the heats straight to the final.
The third member will be Allison Schmitt, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, who put up a 1:55.95 lead-off this morning, easily the fastest leg on the American squad.
Now about that fourth leg. Who will get it? It could realistically be any one of three swimmers.
First, there’s Missy Franklin. It’s no secret that the 2013 world champion in this event hasn’t been on her best form the last few years, and her showing in the individual 200 free probably went worse than even her biggest skeptics could have predicted.
She did produce the fastest relay leg other than Schmitt this morning in 1:57.03, but you’d have to figure that’s probably the best she’s got after going 1:57 plus in the 200 free semis.
Then there’s Melanie Margalis, who had a terrific 200 IM last night finishing 4th and was just one one-hundredth slower than Franklin this morning in 1:57.04.
However, if reaction times are taken into account, which was definitely a factor yesterday when Ryan Lochte was selected for the men’s relay over Jack Conger despite Conger having the faster leg but Lochte having the faster leg minus the reaction, Margalis actually out-splits Franklin. Without reaction times she was 18 one-hundredths better than Franklin.
And then there’s Maya Dirado, who didn’t swim this event at the Trials as it directly interfered with her 200 IM, but certainly should be considered for the relay tonight. Not only is Dirado swimming very well here in Rio, winning silver in the 400 IM and bronze in the 200 IM, but she also produced a career best 1:57.70 at the Arena Pro Series in Santa Clara in early June. That time would have just missed qualifying for the relay in the Trials final, but granted it was done at an in-season meet it’s hard to imagine she wouldn’t have been faster in Omaha.
Just missing the relay at Trials was Simone Manuel, who finished 7th after leading early on in that race. Despite that respectable showing and the solid form she’s show thus far in Rio, she won’t swim tonight with the 100 free semis already on her schedule.
Dana Vollmer is someone who has swum on this relay in the past, but has shown no indication she’ll be part of the conversation for tonight.
So that leaves the aforementioned three. A case can be made for each of them, but, assuming the Conger/Lochte decision was based off of reaction times, it’s hard to imagine Franklin getting in over Margalis.
For now I’d say Margalis over Franklin, and if the coaches feel good about Dirado, then she’ll be in the final. It’s ultimately their decision.
At least three of the other seven finalists are expected to make at least one lineup change tonight.
The Australians will certainly sub-in 200 free bronze medalist Emma McKeon, who will likely take out distance specialist Jessica Ashwood who was their slowest leg this morning in 1:57.98.
The Canadians will bring in two-time medalist Penny Oleksiak for sure, and potentially Brittany Maclean who missed this morning due to illness. Coming out will likely be Kennedy Goss (1:59.49), and if Maclean is good to go then she’ll replace Emily Overholt (1:58.29).
The other team surely to make a change are the Chinese, with 200 free finalist Shen Duo waiting in the chambers. She’ll replace their slowest member of the morning Wang Shijia (1:58.55).
It was recently reported that Duo has scratched the 100 free semis in an effort to put her complete focus into tonight’s relay.
The Russians, Japanese, Swedes and Hungarians are all expected to stand pat with their lineups for tonight’s finals.
soooooo… that worked out OK 🙂
I’m not quite ready to give up completely yet on Missy, she hasn’t been that good, but we have all seen what she js capeable of. On the other hand, if the coaches dont go with Missy, I really want to see what Dirado could do… she has been killing it thus far. It is sad to see her retiring at only 23
they’ve chosen dirado, but i would’ve really liked to see franklin as well.
It’s decided, Dirado gets it.
where does it say that?
yES! dirado most definitely deserves that gold medal!!!
I said this another post. I agree with the Dirado decision. She’s deserving.
Just announced Schmidt, Smith, Dirado, Kl
Smart move, imho. I feel better about it now.
If Phelps is feeling like a woman tonight, then by the whole spirit and philosophy of the transgender and bathroom movements s/he should be on the women’s relay.
With finals starting in less than 2 hours, how much longer can it take to make this decision. I am assuming that the swimmers need to know relatively soon so they can prepare.
Let them take their time so we can continue to talk about possible options. 🙂 The reality is that it absolutely doesn’t matter who will be chosen besides Ledecky and Schmitt. Neither Americans lose gold medal nor the world record gets broken.
There was a chance if Franklin could swim just under 1:56. It looked so possible after trials. She killed this hope.
I don’t know why but I have this nervous feeling; I know they’ll likely win but I also have a little “what if?” going on like if somebody on the US falters tonight and the unpredictable Chinese pull one (or two) of their rabbits out of a hat or if Barratt/McKeon swim out of their minds along with the other two who swam well already.
I feel the the US has a little less of lock on this relay than the Aussies had on the 4×100. But I have to admit that could be an irrational fear leftover from the taste of prelims where everyone except Schmitty swam slower than I expected. Because I didn’t feel this way about… Read more »
Let me calm your nerves: Katie Ledecky
^ this
Oh and the 2nd thing that worked: I just heard. DiRado.
lol yeah that works 😉
maybe they have but aren’t making it public till they have to submit to the meet…
These NBC conspiracy theories crack me up. If NBC controlled the relay lineups, Missy and Lochte would have swum the 4×100.
DiRado. My rationale: I was really bummed when she scratched the whole thing in Omaha, but I was also hoping that ever since then, she was in ongoing discussion with the coaches about this possibility, and hopefully she did a time trial, or more likely some relevant test sets for her freestyle, during training camp. But even if not, freestyle at the end of both IMs was very strong and she was able to maintain her position in the 4IM and more importantly, also outsplit Margalis in the freestyle at the end of the 2IM after Marsalis caught her on the breast.
I was surprised that one of Franklin, Runge, or Margalis couldn’t hit 1:56.0, especially Franklin. I’m now… Read more »