Lochte; Dwyer to Join Klueh and McLean in Finals of 800 Free Relay

Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer have been added to the finals lineup of the men’s 800 free relay to go along with Michael Klueh and Matt McLean, who both swam very well in prelims.

The American relay was 4th in the morning heats, behind Germany, Russia, and Australia, and will have to make up a three second gap in finals to take gold. The Germans, however, have maxed-out their lineup and will return the same four in finals (though in a different order). They will need better swims from three of their legs, though Yannick Lebherz in 1:43.02 was a monster in the morning.

As fort he Americans, they stuck with their standard methodology for picking finals swimmers by rolling-forward the two fastest times, minus reaction, from prelims. Klueh was a 1:44.37 (minus .33 for reaction) and McLean was a 1:45.45 (minus .70 for reaction). Wisconsin Badger Michael Weiss was also very good in prelims with a 1:45.3, but he was also much quicker off of the blocks.

McLean will hopefully be able to hit that start a bit quicker tonight to really make the Americans comfortable, though with the gold and bronze medalists from the individual 200 joining, they won’t sweat too much.

The biggest challenge might be from the Russians, who are the defending champions and World Record holders. They, like the Germans, will have no new faces in their finals relay though, so any improvements would have to be from simple time drops.

The Australians (3rd seed in 7:01.77) swapped in Bobby Hurley for Travis Mahoney. That could be as much as a 4 second drop off of their time, so they are in strong medal contention as well.