The men’s 4×200 free relay final is tonight and much of the final has at least one swimmer in the reserves that they could use. Let’s take a deeper look at who might be swapped in and out.
MEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY – HEATS
- World Record: 6:58.55 – USA (2009)
- Olympic Record: 6:58.56 – USA (2009)
- 2021 Winning Time: 6:58.58 – Great Britain
- 2021 Time to Advance to Finals: 7:07.73
- Great Britain – 7:05.11
- United States – 7:05.57
- France – 7:05.61
- Australia – 7:05.63
- Germany – 7:06.20
- China – 7:07.72
- South Korea – 7:07.96
- Japan/Israel – 7:08.43 (TIE)
Great Britain
*Indicates time from individual flat-start start in Paris Games this week
| Morning Splits | Reserves | ||
| James Guy | 1:45.04 | Duncan Scott | 1:44.87* |
| Jack McMillan | 1:45.68 | Matthew Richards | 1:44.74* |
| Kieran Bird | 1:47.68 | ||
| Tom Dean | 1:46.71 |
The team from Great Britain looks to be set up well to defend their Olympic title after posting the top time of the morning without even using Scott of Richards. Richards won silver in the individual event last night while Scott was fourth. Based on the two times from last night, the relay could get another six or so seconds faster once you factor in flying starts.
USA
| Morning Splits | Reserves | ||
| Drew Kibler | 1:46.43 | Carson Foster | 1:45.57 |
| Brooks Curry | 1:45.96 | Luke Hobson | 1:44.79 * |
| Blake Pieroni | 1:46.44 | Kieran Smith | 1:44.74 |
| Chris Guiliano | 1:46.74 |
Carson Foster of the US did not even swim the event at US Trials but has history of being a member of this US men’s relay at big meets. Foster had a 1:43.94 flying start split in February at the 2024 World Championships which rocketed the US up to win bronze. Kieran Smith had a big 1:44.74 lead off split at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, although the US fell to 4th. Smith wasn’t used this morning on the relay and missed the final of the 400 free. Smith is coached by Anthony Nesty, the head coach of the men’s team and Smith has had consistent 1:44low flying starts from 2022 and 2023 Worlds. Luke Hobson seemed to be a lock to have the morning off after a 1:44.79 in the individual final last night for bronze.
France
| Morning Splits | Reserves | ||
| Hadrien Salvan | 1:47.80 | Leon Marchand |
1:44.89 (flying start)
|
| Amazigh Yebba | 1:46.04 | ||
| Yann le Goff | 1:46.55 | ||
| Roman Fuchs | 1:45.22 |
The French had a big morning as they head into tonight as the 3-seed. Our preview’s ranked them as the dark horse but a 1:45.22 anchor form Roman Fuchs this morning helped ensure they made the final. The biggest reserve looks to be Leon Marchand who anchored the 2023 Worlds relay in a 1:44.89. Marchand has a busy night with the 200 fly and 200 breast in his schedule.
Australia
| Morning Splits | Reserves | ||
| Kai Taylor | 1:47.60 | Max Guiliani | 1:45.57* |
| Zac Incerti | 1:47.95 | Kyle Chalmers | 1:45.19 |
| Flynn Southam | 1:45.62 | ||
| Thomas Neill | 1:45.36 |
Guiliani finaled in the individual event swimming a 1:45.57 for 7th and was slightly faster in semifinals with a 1:45.37. Both times seem to place him around his fastest split this qualifying period of a 1:44.79. Kyle Chalmers had a big split for the men’s relay in the 4×100 free and he looks to be another option for tonight.
South Korea
| Morning Splits | Reserves | ||
| Lee Hojoon | 1:46.53 | Hwang Sun-Woo | 1:45.92* |
| Yooyean Lee | 1:47.58 | Lee Ho-Joon | 1:45.56 |
| Kim Yeonghyeon | 1:48.26 | Yang Jea-Hoon | 1:46.83 |
| Kim Woomin | 1:45.59 |
Hwang Sun-Woo missed the final in the individual event, a big miss after winning the event at 2024 Worlds in a 1:44.75, but he still looks to swap in as a relay leg tonight. It looks like the relay is still going to need a big split tonight for bronze but they aren’t out of the race yet.
5 USA – United States of America HOBSON Luke 25 JUN 2003 7:05.57 FOSTER Carson 26 OCT 2001 KIBLER Drew 9 MAR 2000 SMITH Kieran 20 MAY 2000
With the conditions this meet, this will be a very tactical race. US and GB could be so concentrated on each other Korea could snatch the gold from an outside lane with cleaner water btw: Korea must hate the fact that Israel made the final.
Nesty has a tough job picking the final order but with how he got the 4×100 right I am confident he knows best. Do you gamble with Armstrong? With Hobson’s fast closing speed, where do you put him: anchor, lead-off, or third leg? Are you going race it with the expectation that the American anchor should be ahead of the GB swimmer when they jump in, or are you going to try and stay at… Read more »
Inside or out there’s no way Korea upsets GB and US.
Hwang and Yang didn’t swim the heat for Korea this morning. The same quartet of Hwang, Lee, Yang and Kim won gold in Asian Games two years ago, breaking Asian Record of 7:01.73. Lee and Kim swam a solid leg for Korea in the heat. I don’t think Hwang can duplicate his anchor swim in China tonight, but he saved his energy scratching 100m semi. They are all in for relay medal. Gold – UK, Silver – US. It’s going to be a dog fight between Korea, AU and France for bronze.
Am I the only one who thought it was a bad idea for Chris Giuliano to swim and train for 50/100/200 free, events that these days require some degree of specialization? He should have picked 2 of them to focus on. Now he’s become somewhat of a liability for the relays.
I would guess he didn’t expect necessarily to make all three at Trials. But if I were his coaches, I would’ve dropped one once it happened.
Can’t blame them for the confidence though. If he swam all three great at Trials…
Coaching experience doesn’t always matter, but this feels like a spot where it would have mattered.
I am glad you think so. Now they should probably pass on Giuliano for the 4 x 200fr and rest him for the 100free finals assuming he qualifies tonight, and hopefully he can make a case for swimming on the 4 x 100 medleys.
Could Armstrong swim the backstroke leg of the 400 medley relay in the morning and then anchor in the evening?
He could but he probably won’t. And the guys 1Fr today will give us more data
I feel the conversation should have been framed as getting his 100 free to be as fast as possible to anchor the medley relay and get that gold
This is sort of true.
I wouldn’t say he showed that he would make it through 3 rounds of the 200 at trials.
1:47.05, 1:46.83, 1:45.38
Even though Guiliano got 2nd at trials it’s pretty obvious to me Smith would have been more likely fo final in the event at the games.
Weird call to swim it and an especially weird call to use him on the prelim relay when he has the 100 free semis tonight.
His audition was his 1:47.60 heat swim, they could have used the information of a Smith 200 free this morning.
Guiliano has every right to swim all 3 if he wanted, he earned those spots. Guiliano gets the say not his coaches.
Before 2004, Michael Phelps had never competed in 8 events at worlds or olympics, but him and Bowman went for it. It’s easy to say in hindsight it was too much, but you don’t know it’s too much until you do it. It’s not outlandish to think he could get it down after successfully doing the triple in trials.
Gotta go with foster if you want a chance at winning, though all the stars would have to align with 1:43s from foster/hobson and a 1:44 redemption swim from smith. Even with that lineup it’s still the Brit’s race to lose
I agree, gotta give Foster a shot. I’m not sure about Smith, but he did get 3rd at trials so probably gets the nod. And what about Giuliano? After the morning swim, it’s still not clear he’ll be on it (maybe more clear that he won’t be despite being an individual entrant). Big question mark for me: what about Armstrong? I think he was 1:45.mid at the recent worlds and went 46.7 in the 100 earlier. Maybe that says his freestyle is really on right now? Maybe it says his sprints are on but not mid distance?
To win, you’ve got to have Hobson & Foster, then I guess you roll the dice a little: Smith & Armstrong.
I think Kibler got 3rd at Trials, and Smith was 4th in the 200m.
Very surprise they left Smith off this morning’s prelims – either they feel confident about his 200 or are just weighing in their choices from the prelim team’s performance.
Would not be surprise if they left Foster off the relay – yes he went 1:43.94 at Doha but that doesn’t mean he can replicate that time in this pool and at Paris. They have no additional data since he as not swam the 200 at trials nor at Paris.
Curry looks pretty good this morning. My prediction will be Hobson/Smith/Curry/Kibler in some order.
They have plenty of information on Foster from his bronze medal winning 400IM and closing freestyle split. Based on this and his past performances in the 200free, Carson Foster is a LOCK.
Foster in! So glad to see him added.
I think this so could be an epic race between the US & GB.
US should go Hobson, foster, smith, Kibler / curry. Tough to pick that last spot for US
Not that in matters for the medal conversation, but Frankel subs in for Israel which hopes to improve their best relay finish. They were 8th in Atlanta 1996 in Men’s 4X100 Med and 8th in the Mixed Med in Tokyo
Could maybe slot Polonsky in there too?
Yeah, he is a decent 200 freestyler and had a good first swim in the 100 breaststroke breaking a NR. I think they would rather keep him more fresh for the 200 IM but we will see.
Israeli relay will be Loktev-Groumi-Frankel-Soloveychik, in that order. Published in Israeli media.
Polonsky didn’t train for the 200.