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Qin’s 57.98 Set the Stage for Pan’s 45.92 to Win Gold (Day 9 – Men’s Medley Relay Analysis)

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

MEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY – Finals

  • World Record: 3:26.78 – USA (2021)
  • Olympic Record: 3:26.78 – USA (2021)
  • 2021 Winning Time: 3:26.78 – USA
  • 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 3:29.17

Podium

  1. China (Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun, Pan Zhanle)- 3:27.46
  2. USA (Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel, Hunter Armstrong) – 3:28.01
  3. France (Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Leon Machand, Maxime Grousset, Florent Manaudou)- 3:28.38
  4. Great Britain (Oliver Morgan, Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, Matthew Richards)- 3:29.60
  5. Canada (Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun, Josh Liendo)- 3:31.27
  6. Australia (Isaac Cooper, Joshua Yong, Matthew Temple, Kyle Chalmers)- 3:31.86
  7. Germany (Ole Braunschweig, Melvin Imoudu, Luca Armbruster) – 3:32.46
  8. Netherlands (Kai van Westering, Caspar Corbeau, Nyls Korstanje, Josha Salchow) – 3:32.52

Backstroke Leg

Rank Swimmer Country Time (Place)
1 Xu Jiayu China 52.37
2 Ryan Murphy USA 52.44
3 Yohann Ndoye-Brouard France 52.60
4 Oliver Morgan Great Britain 52.83
5 Blake Tierney Canada 53.75
6 Isaac Cooper Australia 54.28
7 Ole Braunchsweig Germany 54.38
8 Kai van Westering Netherlands 54.60

In the rubber match between China’s Xu Jiayu and the USA’s Ryan Murphy, it was the Chinese swimmer who came out on top. Murphy left at the 50, 25.18 to 25.30, but the 100-back silver medalist, Xu, stormed back to touch his American riva 52.37 to 52.44.

France’s Ndoye-Brouad reliably kept the French in the medal hunt after having performed near his best, splitting 52.60, just off his 52.48 from the mixed medley relays. After Oliver Morgan’s 52..83, it was quite a far jump back to the other four teams as Blake Tierney‘s 53.75 was 5th, which isn’t all that surprising as the four fastest legs were all finalists in the 100 whereas Tierney was just 16th in the semis at 53.71.

Breaststroke Leg

Rank Swimmer Country Time (Place)
1 Qin Haiyang China 57.98 (1)
2 Adam Peaty Great Britain 58.16 (2)
3 Leon Marchand France 58.62 (3)
4 Nic Fink USA 58.97 (4)
5 Casper Corbeau Netherlands 59.19 (8)
6 Joshua Yong Australia 59.26 (6)
7 Melvin Imoudu Germany 59.37 (7)
8 Finlay Knox Canada 59.64 (5)

After a rather sleepy 100 breaststroke that saw no male swimmer break 59.00 in the individual final, the relay splits were more exciting. That sentence may seem familiar as it is the exact one that was used in the Mixed Medley splits article, and it still holds true. After missing out on the medals in the 100, Qin Haiyang split his second sub-58 split in as many days, recording a mark of 57.98. While it was slightly off the 57.82 he managed to produce on the mixed medley, it was more than enough to continue to build the lead he had on the Americans and French

The Olympic co-silver medalists, American Nic Fink and Britain’s Adam Peaty tied in the final with a mark of 59.05, and while each split faster than that, they did so by drastically different margins. While Fink, who yesterday was 58.29, was only able to conjure up a 58.97 this evening, losing ground to Qin, Leon Marchand (58.62), and Peaty, whose 58.16 propelled the Brits from 4th into second.

Similar to the backstroke, these four teams separated themselves from the pack and only compounded their front-runner status, as the next fastest split belonged to Australia’s Josh Young, who was 59.26

Butterfly Leg

Rank Swimmer Country Time (Place)
1 Caeleb Dressel USA 49.41 (2)
2 Maxime Grousset France 49.57 (1)
3 Ilya Kharun Canada 50.46 (5)
4 Nyls Korstanje Netherlands 50.60 (6)
5 Matthew Temple Australia 50.89 (7)
6 Luca Armbruster Germany 50.96 (8)
7 Sun Jiajun China 51.19 (3)
8 Duncan Scott Great Britain 51.30 (4)

At the halfway point, China led the French by .87 and the Americans by 1.06. The Brits were technically in 2nd, .64 back, but their flyer, Duncan Scott, was just 51.61 in the mixed medley and wasn’t expected to be able to maintain such a position against the likes of Caeleb Dressel and Maxime Grousset.

The pair took out the first 50 fast, with Grousset starting with a blistering 22.36 and Dressel at 22.82. Grousset would come back to earth (and to Dressel) on the backhalf, ultimately splitting 49.57 to the American’s 49.41 and taking over the top two spots from China and Great Britain.

China failed to advance a butterflier to the semifinals of the individual event and struggled in this leg with Sun Jiajun, posting the 2nd slowest split of 51.19 and going from a lead of nearly a second to trailing the French by approximately three quarters of a second.

Freestyle Leg

Rank Swimmer Country Time (Place)
1 Pan Zhanle China 45.92 (1)
2 Hunter Armstrong USA 47.19 (2)
3 Matthew Richards Great Britain 47.31 (4)
Josh Liendo Canada 47.31 (5)
5 Kyle Chalmers Australis 47.43 (6)
6 Florent Manaudou France 47.59 (3)
7 Josha Salchow Germany 47.75 (7)
8 Stan Pijnenburg  Netherlands 48.13 (8)

Such a deficit would be a death knell normally to a relay, and while Pan Zhanle, the World record holder in the event, could make up the difference, it was going to be close. Would he be near his record of 46.40, or would he be nearer his 46.9 relay splits from earlier in the week?

His first 50 answered the question easily as he was 21.57 to the feet and had made up nearly the whole deficit. Florent Manaudou, the bronze medalist in the 50, and Hunter Armstrong, the fastest American at the meet, thanks to his 46.75, were just 22.05 and 22.32 and were in trouble as Pan opened up a lead on the two giants. Closing in 24.35, Pan would ultimately split 45.92, not only passing the great Jason Lezak as the fastest ever but also becoming the first under the 46.00 barrier.

While Armstrong was unable to repeat his sub-47 performance, the American posted the second-fastest split of 47.19, albeit more than a second behind Pan to secure the silver medal for the Americans. While Manaudou had the second-fastest first 50 (22.05), he started to lag on the last lap and ranked 6th with his split of 47.59, but he was still fast enough to be more than a full second clear of Great Britain and to win his second bronze of the meet.

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Cody
3 months ago

This Chinese team should enter the enhanced olympics, they already have the prescriptions dialed in.

James K
Reply to  Cody
3 months ago

And the Americans should enter the suck a lemon Olympics. Not only do they suck as sore losers but they could use a lesson in sucking up the losing.

SSS
Reply to  Cody
2 months ago

Cool, wish China gave Qin those meds during the individual events too then he wouldn’t have tanked. So stupid of them, really
(I hope you’re able to read sarcasm as you don’t seem very smart)

Boomer
3 months ago

If Italy made the final, would France have medalled?

Swimz
Reply to  Boomer
3 months ago

Noooo..they all swam with their best and could not swam at their best..

Entgegen
3 months ago

Qin looked more like himself in his stroke on both mixed and medley relays. Some time away to figure out his mental game must have helped

stone
Reply to  Entgegen
3 months ago

can’t wait for his show in 2028LA

SSS
Reply to  Entgegen
2 months ago

he really needs to see a psychologist, he has the ability to break world records but he always underperforms at crucial events! Glad he managed to get in together for the team events, he said Pan’s record-breaking feat in the men’s 100m freestyle motivated him and gave him hope

John N
3 months ago

Murph adding 0.36 and Fink adding 0.68 from the 4×100 mixed relay definitely did not help the US.

Diehard
3 months ago

Where was James Guy on Fly leg? I don’t think he swam prelims or finals!?!?

Swimz
Reply to  Diehard
3 months ago

He was very slow in individual swim

Tony
3 months ago

Pan is as clean as … the skies over Beijing….

Entgegen
Reply to  Tony
3 months ago

Beijing pollution has honestly been so reduced it’s cleaner than some US cities imo

Source: I visited Beijing recently

undies for men
3 months ago

China No. 1 Pan Zhanle is the Best!

Jake
3 months ago

Ahh, China’s butterfly leg was a bit slow. Sun Jiajun’s specialty seems the breastroke and not butterfly.

I don’t really understand why they didn’t just use Wang Shun who I assume is good at fly.

Almost lost the race in the third leg, which makes Pan all that more impressive to be able start from behind and regain that lost distance and still win.

BDD
Reply to  Jake
3 months ago

I didn’t know Sun swam Breastroke? Wang shun hasn’t competed in anything else but 200IM and 100m backstroke recently as well I think

Troyy
Reply to  BDD
3 months ago

He competed in the 100 breast in Paris

prettysup
Reply to  Troyy
3 months ago

He also competed in the 100 butterfly in Paris

prettysup
Reply to  BDD
3 months ago

Sun is both a breaststroke and butterfly swimmer, he was actually second in breaststroke after Qin and second in butterfly after Wang Changhao during their selection trials. But in Paris, Wang Changhao did worse than him in the 100fly heats, so he was pulled up to swim in the finals and Wang Changhao swam the heats.

Lawn
Reply to  Jake
3 months ago

Wang Shun can do 100 fly but he did not beat either Wang Chang Hao or Sun Jia Jim. Sun Jiajun did breast but his coach made him do fly. He s the second one behind Wang Changhao for the 100 fly at Chinese Olympics trials.

Stingy
Reply to  Jake
3 months ago

Meh Wang Shun added time in the 2IM, probably not on form

Entgegen
Reply to  Jake
3 months ago

He’s the Chinese MA

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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