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
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Day 1 Prelims Heat Sheet
During the women’s 4×100 freestyle prelims on day 1 of the Tokyo 2020 Games, China’s contingent of Cheng Yujie, Zhu Menghui, Ai Yanhan, and Wu Qingfeng threw down a new Chinese and Asian record of 3:35.07. The swim was roughly half a second quicker than the previous records, both of which sat at a 3:35.63 which China swam at the 2009 World Championships for 6th place overall.
Yujie Cheng and Zhesi Li had almost identical opening splits 12 years apart as Cheng opened with a 54.03 to Li’s 54.04. Yanhan Ai was the only woman in 2021 to be slower than the corresponding leg from 2009, hitting a 54.33 to Yi Tang‘s 54.16. Zhu and Wu were big for the Tokyo 2020 relay, both hitting sub-53.50s during their portion of the race.
Split Comparison
| 2021 Olympic Games | 2009 World Championships | |
| 1 | Cheng Yujie (54.03) | Zhesi Li (54.04) |
| 2 | Zhu Menghui (53.48) | Qian Wei Zhu (53.73) |
| 3 | Ai Yanhan (54.33) | Yi Tang (54.16) |
| 4 | Wu Qingfeng (53.23) | Jiaying Pang (53.70) |
What makes the national and continental records even more impressive is the fact that the nation managed to pull them off without their top 2 100 freestylers at the meet. Cheng, Zhu, Ai, and Wu put up a solid swim without the help of 100 freestyle Chine record holder Zhang Yufei who’s been a 52.90 in the event, or Yang Junxuan who qualified to swim the event individually in Tokyo. Junxuan is entered to race the 100 free later on in the meet and holds a 10th place seed of 53.21.
Zhang Yufei won’t be racing the 100 freestyle in Tokyo as she’s busy with a lineup consisting of 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, and 50 free. Yufei got things started during day 1 prelims in the 100 butterfly where she and Australian Emma McKeon tied for top seed in the 100 fly with a 55.82. She could realistically be subbed into the 4×100 relay tonight along with Junxuan as the event is set to take place after the 100 butterfly semi-final.
The addition of Junxuan and Yufei could allow for another drop by China and could potentially give the nation its first-ever 3:34 4×100 freestyle.
Tokyo 2020 Women’s 4×100 Freestyle Prelims – Top 8
- Australia, 3:31.73
- Netherlands, 3:33.51
- Canada, 3:33.72
- Great Britain, 3:34.03
- United States, 3:34.80
- China, 3:35.07
- Denmark, 3:35.56
- Sweden, 3:35.93
China looking like they could snag silver or bronze.
You going to say anything about the US women?
America isn’t the only country in the world lmao
username doesn’t check out
You shouldn’t talk about anything ever if you think the US is located in Asia