Manaudou to Stretch His Backstroke; Americans Swap All Four Relay Legs in Medley Finals

Frenchman Florent Manaudou is taking another step in his evolution as a swimmer. His name first became known as the butterflier on an ill-fated French relay, then he became the Olympic 50 freestyle champion, and now, after a 50 backstroke World Record earlier in this meet, he is leading off France’s top-seeded finals relay on the last day of the 2014 World Short Course Championships.

See the full finals lineups here.

Significantly, he takes the spot of Benjamin Stasulius, who is a very good backstroker, but was only 5th-fastest on his leg in prelims.

In those prelims, France had a seven-tenths margin on the Australians; if Manaudou can hold his speed for a full 100, this should be France’s relay to lose even though they’ve left the other three legs untouched (Clement Mignon split a very good 45.92 anchor leg in prelims).

The Australians have the fastest 100 backstroker at this meet (at least until Manaudou says something about that), and Mitch Larkin showed that off by getting the team a lead in prelims. The Aussies are making one switch to their relay, putting Cameron McEvoy on the anchor in place of Matthew Abood, which means a full second improvement could be on tap. That wouldn’t be enough if Manaudou swims well.

The Russians are the scary relay here. They were about a second back of the French in prelims, but have swapped out the entire back-half of their relay: dropping Aleksandr Popkov from the fly leg (50.67) for Evgeny Korotyshkin; and dropping Oleg Tikhobaev (46.59) for Vlad Morozov.

The 4th-seeded Germans will end their relay with the Deibler brothers, putting Markus Deibler on the freestyle leg in stead of Marco di Carli (47.50 in prelims). That’s a significant enough change where they might get a medal.

And then there’s the Americans, the mysterious Americans, who were 5th in prelims in 3:26.29. They changed all four legs of their relay, so it’s hard to know exactly where they’ll be, except that it should be faster than in prelims. This is about as close as the Americans have come to a true “A” relay at this meet, with national champs Matt Grevers and Tom Shields on the backstroke and fly legs, plus the winningest short course meters swimmer in history Ryan Lochte.

Without any real world-beater breaststrokers, Cody Miller should hold-his-own on the breaststroke leg too, which gives the Americans hope.

Their prelims relay:

• back: Eugene Godsoe – 50.52
• breast: Brad Craig – 57.73
• fly: Darian Townsend – 51.01
• free: Jimmy Feigen – 47.03

Their finals relay:

• back: Matt Grevers
• breast: Cody Miller
• fly: Tom Shields
• free: Ryan Lochte

Japan and Brazil, the 6th and 7th seeds, each added a superstar to their relays, making them dangerous. For Japan, that’s Ryosuke Irie on the backstroke, allowing them to slide Kosuke Hagino to the fly; and for Brazil, that’s putting Cesar Cielo on the anchor.

Great Britain didn’t have any changes to make, but they’re capable of much better than they swam in prelims. In other words, all 8 relays in finals have a solid chance of winding up on a podium.