2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
-
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
As the initial swimming entries have been published on the official Tokyo 2020 website here, we’re delving into any surprises or notable changes in what was expected among the athletes headed to the Olympic Games just 9 days away.
Although the nation of Great Britain’s lineup indeed has some changes from the ‘on paper’ outcome from its Olympic Trials, none of the athletes’ schedule alterations are what one would call a ‘surprise’.
For instance, 2016 Olympic finalist Duncan Scott has opted out of the men’s 100m freestyle individual event, despite placing 1st at Trials with a super quick 47.87. However, the race conflicts with both the 200m IM and the men’s 4x200m free relay, both of which Scott represents a mega medal contender. As such, his dropping the 100m free was expected and noted in our event preview.
In his stead, young 16-year-old Jacob Whittle has been given the nod to race the 100m free individually. The Derventio Excel athlete placed 4th in the event at the British Trials, posting a mark of 48.76. He’ll join Matt Richards who also qualified, while 3rd place finisher Tom Dean has the same 4x200m free relay conflict as Scott did.
That means the men’s 100m free will see at least two 16-year-old athletes, given that Romanian sensation David Popovici will also be in the field just days from now.
Also not a shocker is the fact that James Guy has dropped the 200m fly event from his Olympic repertoire. The 25-year-old Bath athlete topped the podium at British Olympic Trials with a time of 1:55.20, although his dropping the race merely follows the man’s pattern of doing so at both the 2018 Commonwealth Games and that year’s European Championships.
Finally, Brodie Williams has been added to the 200m backstroke while Kieran Bird now has the 800m free on his agenda in addition to the 400m free.
We’re also not seeing Joe Litchfield‘s name in the 100m backstroke, which is somewhat of a surprise. He clinched the qualification time at the European Championships and was expected to swim it in Tokyo. We’ve reached out to find out more about this decision, but it may have something to do with relay conflicts.
On the women’s side, the 200m backstroke will see one less British competitor, as Kathleen Dawson has chosen to focus solely on the 100m backstroke event. That leaves teammate Cassie Wild to carry the GBR torch against the likes of Aussie Kaylee McKeown and Italy’s Margherita Panziera. Wild will also be contesting the 100m back.
Additionally, Molly Renshaw has dropped the 100m breast to focus solely on her better 200m distance. Sarah Vasey will represent the sole swimmer in the vent for GBR now.
No surprise to see Jacob getting the 100 spot – Duncan & Tom have medals in their mind elsewhere. Suspect Tom will lead the 4×1 off, so we’ll have a good idea of his form. A bit of a shame to see Molly drop the 100 as there is no conflict, but perhaps it’s a good sign for her 200.
4×100 relay lineup should look like this imo:
Dean, Richards, Whittle, Scott
And 4×200 like this:
Dean, Guy, Richards, Scott
Scott is one of the best anchors in the entire world and Our least experienced swimmer on the 3rd leg is what makes the most sense.
I would be very suprised to see Whittle be picked over Guy for the final. The individual 100 is after the relay so i guess they will pick on prelims times alone but if Guy is going sub 48 untapered at Euros and is known internationally as a massive relay step up swimmer i would probably go with him instead.
No one said he was untapered at euros, he went almost half a second quicker in the 100 fly than what he was at trials when he was fully tapered, I’d be very surprised if he was untapered at euros
They were semi tapered, nothing compared to a full taper, the fly drop i assume is since he knew he wasn’t swimming the 200 free at the olympics after trials he focused that little bit more on the fly in training.
Probably put Dean – Richards – Whittle – Guy in prelims, whoever is quicker between Guy and Whittle should get the final swim.
Pretty sure they’ll go: Dean/Whittle/Richards/Guy in the morning, then bring Scott in for the slowest should they make the final.
Yep, would be a massive shock if that Quartet didn’t make the final.
Reckon they might play silly bugg3rs and put litchfield in instead of Dean in the prelims and that’s why Joe isn’t doing the backstroke. Risky little game
Litchfield was only around half a second slower than Dean at Trials tbf, that Quartet should also just sneek in.
God don’t… Memories of the 4×2 in 2008
I suppose the issue is that the 4×100 prelims clashes with the 200m freestyle heats.
I’m pretty sure that they can afford to rest Scott and go Dean – Richards – Whittle – Guy.
But I think they will want to rest Dean as well – so we might be looking at something like Litchfield – Richards – Whittle – Guy.
The first should qualify comfortably. The second should sneak through; but is a bit risky for me. Top 8 at Europeans all went sub 3.14 and then you need to fold in France (who did not swim the Euro final), Brazil, Australia, USA, Japan and maybe Canada.
That’s a lot of good teams racing for 8… Read more »
The more I think about it, the more I think you’re right and they may have been doing a run-through in Budapesy (Richards-Guy-Whittle-Litchfield for heats). They went 3.14.29 there. Squeaky bum time.
Yes – you’re right – they finished behind Italy and Serbia in their heat (and ahead of Russia somewhat surprisingly). I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a couple of teams have swimmers ‘resting’ that don’t qualify.
Tbf I did see somewhere that Whittle was aiming for 47.xx “hopefully” so let’s hope he’s about to do a bit of a Popovici *laughs nervously remembering 4×200 in Beijing*
I mentioned on the article about fastest under 18s that I spoke to somebody at Luff who was waxing lyrical about a certain kid they had training there. We’ll see what happens, things are tough to predict at that age, but he suggested Duncan’s NR is a realistic target. Not long to wait now.
Dee who is the kid?
Jacob
I think you are way out but time will tell
get some more interesting news from.luff
your past comments are biased
you forgot to state that one of the Litchfields will pick up their medals in the relays
Dont see Golds in any of the relays though
Too many have hyped up GBR to stir the other countries
expect the post mortem at Luffs on their return
Dawson dropped out of the 200 Back because it conflicts with the mixed medley relay.
Dan jervis could’ve swam the 800 free too but has decided not to so he is in the best possible condition for his better event (1500 free).
Molly Dropping the 100 breast is a shame since it doesn’t clash with the 200 or the medley relay, was hoping she would be the first brit to drop under 1:06 given her current form. I honestly wouldn’t be suprised if she swam the mixed medley heats with a team like Dawson, Guy and Scott or Greenbank Guy Anderson and will most likely retain her spot in the womens medley final after her great euros split.
Cassie, Wilby, Peters and Hopkin/Anderson should qualify them and you’d have 4 fresh swimmers for the final.