#Tokyo2020 Cheat Sheet for Non-Swimmers Day 6: The World Record Goes Down!

As someone who is engulfed in swimming 365 days a year, and we know many of our readers are as well, the question “how was the swim meet?”, while so simple on its surface, can be a challenge. We know our spouses, our families, and our friends are asking to be polite, to show interest in what we love, and to make conversation, but it’s easily to be paralyzed by how to explain this deep complex story of swimming into an answer that they’ll understand and care about.

So throughout this meet, we’ll take a shot at distilling the answer to that question into a couple of bite-sized pieces to get the conversation started. This is a perfect share on Facebook for your aunties to read or to email back to your cousin on a Sunday morning.

Hopefully these launch into more specific follow-up questions and discussions where you can really flex your muscles.

• See the full day 6 recap here for all of the dirty details.

Biggest Day 6 Stories

• Tatjana Schoenmaker kicked things off with a BANG! She cracked the World Record in the women’s 200 breaststroke, beat Lilly King, and gave South Africa their first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics in either sport. Along with a silver in the 100 breast, she has 2 of the country’s 3 total medals in Tokyo (all sports). This is significant for a few reasons: one is that in Rio, five years ago, South Africa didn’t qualify a single female swimmer to the Olympics. Now they have two medals, a World Record, and a host of other successes from that group. It’s also the first individual World Record of the Olympics – continuing a streak of individual World Records being set at every Olympics since 1952.
• Evgeny Rylov of Russia won the 200 back to complete a backstroke sweep, beating out American silver-medalist Ryan Murphy in the race. Murphy made some controversial statements about doping at the Olympics after that he says weren’t targeted specifically at any athlete, but the discussions have raged across the world anyway.
• Emma McKeon won the women’s 100 free for her 2nd Olympic gold medal of Tokyo, 3rd overall, and 8th total medal. She has 1 more to match Ian Thorpe’s 9 medals as the most-ever by an Australian in any sport, and 2 more to hold that title alone. With the two medley relays left, plus the 50, she’s on target to do so.
• American Michael Andrew was leading the men’s 200 IM at the 150 meter mark, as he does, but the wheels came off in the last length and China’s Wang Shun won the gold. He’s now the third-fastest man ever in that event, behind only two names you might know: Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Here’s when the second finals session starts in your timezone, you can watch it on NBC, BBC, CBC, EuroSport, or whatever else is listed here.

There are now no preliminary sessions remaining, with only finals to come. On Day 7, watch Caeleb Dressel go for his 3rd gold medal as the top seed in the men’s 100 fly, a very unpredictable women’s 200 backstroke final, and Katie Ledecky going for her 2nd gold in the women’s 800 free final.

The session will also see the first medal race of the mixed medley relay, which features 2 men and 2 women, each swimming a different stroke, in any order. That race is wide open and has 6 real contenders for gold.

TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS: POOL SWIMMING MEDAL TABLE AFTER DAY 6