Tokyo 2020 Announces Swimming Lineup With New Events Included

The official website for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics has released an event schedule, including the much-anticipated swimming event order that includes three new races: the men’s 800 free, women’s 1500 free and a mixed 4×100 medley relay.

The bulk of the lineup appears to be the same as past Olympics, with the three new events (officially added to the Olympic program as of summer 2017) slotting into the already-established lineup. Here’s a look at the new events and their dates of competition. The Tokyo Olympics will run heats at night and finals in the morning to accomodate live TV schedules, so the traditional competition days are technically split up between two days – that is, day 1 prelims take place on Saturday, July 25, while day 1 finals will kick off the morning of Sunday, July 26 in local time.

• Women’s 1500 Free: Heats Day 3, Finals Day 4
• Men’s 800 Free: Heats Day 4, Finals Day 5
• Mixed 4×100 Medley Relay: Heats Day 6, Finals Day 7

The only other changes to existing events were relatively minor – the men’s 50 free moved back one day:

• Men’s 50 free: Heats/semifinals now day 7, finals day 8 (previously heats/semis day 6, finals day 7)
• Day 7 finals: Men’s 100 fly & women’s 200 back finals order swapped (previously 200 back then 100 fly)

Here’s a look at the full schedule, including the events surrounding the three new ones in each session:

A quick early analysis of any conflicts:

• The toughest one to slot is probably the mixed medley relay. Its medal final comes right after the 50 free semifinals, which could be an issue for any versatile sprinters who could possibly make that relay: Caeleb Dressel, Kyle Chalmers, Cate Campbell, Simone Manuel and others.
• Heats of that medley come right after heats of the men’s 100 fly and women’s 200 back. The backstroke is less of a concern, given the widely-adopted strategy of using a male backstroker whenever possible, though in prelims, some nations may choose to switch that up. The men’s 100 fly is a tough double, considering most nations will have their top two male flyers swimming that event in heats. It might make it smarter to use a female flyer in prelims, even if the plan is to go back to a male flyer in finals.
• The medley slotting in on day 6/7 also makes it a bit more crowded for top sprint strokers, who would traditionally have the male or female medley relay at day 7 heats, but have no relay events at day 7 finals before swimming the medley finals on day 8. Now, a swimmer competing on both medleys (mixed-gender and single-gender) would swim a medley in heats of day 6, heats of day 7, finals of day 7 and finals of day 8. That’s not ideal, but certainly doable for most athletes, and there doesn’t seem to be a better spot to fit that relay, as there are now relay events on every single day of competition besides day 3.
• The women’s 1500s do come in a double with the women’s 200 frees in both heats and finals. That’s definitely not ideal for rangy types like Katie Ledecky. The events are spread out to either end of the session, but swimming a 1500 free perhaps a few hours after an all-out 200 free will make for a tough combo, and probably won’t bode well for world record-type performances. Maybe the smart call for Ledecky is to do only what she has to in 200 free heats, and making her world record run in 1500 heats. Then by finals, she could attack the 200 free at full strength and plan to coast a 1500 victory as best she can at the end of the session.
• The women’s 1500 could also cause a double for anyone who swims the 1500 and the 200 IM or the 200 fly. One potential name there is Mireia Belmonte, who was the 2017 World champ in the 200 fly and silver medalist in the 1500.
• The men’s 800 has a similar conflict, coming right after heats of the men’s 4×200 free relay. That would make a tough double for rangy types like Zane Grothe, Sun Yang or Mack Horton, all of whom could swim the individual 800 as well as a leg of their nation’s 4×200 relay. Finals are a bit better though, with the 4×200 happening at day 4 finals and the 800 on day 5. The 800 then only conflicts with the 200 breast, 200 back, 100 free and 200 IM for men, which seem a lot less likely doubles.