2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
After some speculation as to what changes would be made to each team’s 400 free relay roster that advanced to the final earlier today, the official lineups have been released, and most of the expected moves were made, with one surprise. Check out the full lineups for tonight below:
- Belgium (G.Surgeloose, J.Aerents, E.Vanluchene, P.Timmers)
- Canada (S.Condorelli, Y.Kisil, M.Thormeyer, E.Van Moerkerke)
- Australia (J.Roberts, K.Chalmers, J.Magnussen, C.McEvoy)
- Russia (A.Grechin, D.Izotov, V.Morozov, A.Sukhorukov)
- USA (C.Dressel, M.Phelps, R.Held, N.Adrian)
- France (M.Metella, F.Gilot, F.Manaudou, J.Stravius)
- Brazil (M.Chierighini, N.Oliveira, G.Santos, J.De Lucca)
- Japan (K.Nakamura, S.Shinri, K.Kobase, J.Koga)
The big surprise was Ryan Held, who split 47.79 this morning, getting the nod over Anthony Ervin who was 47.65. Other than that, the additions of Caeleb Dressel, Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian are as expected. Dressel will lead-off as he has a terrific flat start, Phelps will swim in the same spot he did four years ago, and Adrian has been dynamite on the anchor in the past.
The Australians did as expected, moving out Matthew Abood for Cameron McEvoy, who will anchor head-to-head against Adrian. The Aussies have put their best legs 2nd and 4th with Kyle Chalmers and McEvoy, and will rely on James Roberts and James Magnussen to hold their own on the 1st and 3rd legs.
Russia has made the one expected change, moving out Aleksandr Popkov for Vladimir Morozov, and the French have added Florent Manaudou and Jérémy Stravius, which was also expected. Fabien Gilot and Mehdy Metella remain, moving out Clément Mignon and William Meynard.
Brazil and Belgium also made the moves that we thought they might, adding Emmanuel Vanluchene and Joao De Lucca to their rosters in exchange for Dieter Dekoninck and Matheus Santana who were both over 49 seconds this morning.
And then as expected, Japan and Canada keep the same lineups from this morning in the same order. Buckle up.
They did a great job
What do all of you think about the decision to swim Held now? With his talent and Coach DeSorbo, the sky is the limit. Here comes the Wolfpack!
The Spirit of Lezak will be with the boys tonight. I hope they watch the tape of that relay and believe in themselves.
I wouldn’t want to be that Russian anchor trying to hold off Adrian, McEvoy and Stravius (who’s a relay stud)
Adrian’s a shark if he has a target to run down.
I am ok with the Held/Ervin thing. Ervin’s one of my favorite swimmers ever, but I think Anthony would be the first to tell you that’s it’s a coin flip whether he’s gonna die on the back half of any given 100. He’s in for a medal, and I’m ready to see him give the world 3 more great 50’s.
Will held jump early?
Was never Held that jumped. #ncaarelaychamps
Will come down to Adrian. If he is within half a second of the lead, gold to USA. USA Gold, Russia Silver, Australia Bronze.
Adrian is going to need a lead on Mcevoy.
Let’s hope…. No DQ
They’re disciplined. They’ll be talking to the rookie, letting him know when to release.
That sounded… Somewhat inappropriate
Get your mind out of the gutter 😉
God I hope they don’t bring it up. Leading up to the Olympic final is not the time to be talking about when to go on relay starts haha they had a month of training camp to do that