Back with another day of prelims, we saw a few veterans of the sport make their Paris debuts, and we saw seasoned athletes and newcomers alike continue their hot streak in the pool. This morning’s events, the women’s 200 backstroke, men’s 50 freestyle, men’s 200 IM, and women’s 4×200 freestyle relay will all be competed again tonight, alongside the women’s 200 butterfly, men’s 200 backstroke, and women’s 200 breaststroke. We’ll get to see Regan Smith take on the 200 backstroke semifinal/200 butterfly final double, with the two events looking to be around an hour apart from each other. Today’s finals session, like the others, will start at 2:30 EST.
PRELIMS SWIMS
WOMEN’S 200 BACKSTROKE
- Peng Xuwei, China: 2:08.29
- Kylie Masse, Canada: 2:08.54
- Kaylee McKeown, Australia: 2:08.89
- Phoebe Bacon, United States: 2:09.00
- Honey Orsin, Great Britain: 2:09.57
- Regan Smith, United States: 2:09.61
- Anastasiya Shkurdai, Neutral Athlete Team: 2:09.64
- Emma Terebo, France: 2:09.66
- Eszter Szabo-Feltothy, Hungary: 2:09.72
- Eunji Lee, South Korea: 2:09.88
- Katie Shanahan, Great Britain: 2:09.92
- Carmen Weiler, Spain: 2:10.09
- Anastasia Gorbenko, Israel: 2:10.29
- Pauline Mahieu, France: 2:10.30
- Africa Zamorano, Spain: 2:10.40
- Dora Molnar, Hungary: 2:10.51
- Time to Qualify: 2:10.51
- Time to Qualify (Tokyo): 2:11.24
- Time to Qualify (Rio): 2:10.68
Returning Olympic Medalists:
- Kaylee McKeown (Gold, 2021)
- Kylie Masse (Silver, 2021)
Returning Tokyo Finalists:
- Kaylee McKeown (1), Phoebe Bacon (5), Peng Xuwei (7)
Current International Record Holders:
- Kaylee McKeown (World, Oceanian, and Commonwealth Record, 2:03.14)
- Regan Smith (World Junior and Americas Record, 2:03.35)
Slowly starting to dispel the idea of a slow pool (at least in the prelims sessions), this is the fastest time we’ve seen it take to return for a semifinal in the history of the women’s 200 backstroke. We’ll get to see Kaylee McKeown and Regan Smith go head to head again in the semifinals, which will hopefully produce some fast swims in both the semis and tomorrow night’s final. Looking at these 16 swimmers, 12 countries are represented across four continents. Spain, the United States, France, and Hungary will send both of their athletes back to semifinals tonight.
MEN’S 50 FREESTYLE
- Cam McEvoy, Australia: 21.32
- Jordan Crooks, Cayman Islands: 21.51
- Florent Manaudou, France: 21.54
- Lorenzo Zazzeri, Italy: 21.64
- Ben Proud, Great Britain: 21.70
- Thomas Fannon, Ireland/Leonardo Deplano, Italy: 21.79
- ^tie for sixth
- Ben Armbruster, Australia/Kristian Gkolomeev, Greece: 21.86
- ^tie for eighth
- Meiron Cheruti, Israel: 21.88
- Vladyslav Bukhov, Ukraine/Gabriel Castano, Mexico: 21.89
- ^tie for 11th
- Diogo Ribeiro, Portugal/Caeleb Dressel, United States: 21.91
- ^tie for 13th
- Josh Liendo, Canada: 21.92
- Maxime Grousset, France: 21.94
- Time to Qualify: 21.94
- Time to Qualify (Tokyo): 21.97
- Time to Qualify (Rio): 22.10
Returning Olympic Medalists:
- Caeleb Dressel (Gold, 2021)
- Florent Manaudou (Gold, 2012; Silver, 2016/2021)
Returning Tokyo Finalists:
- Caeleb Dressel (1), Florent Manaudou (2), Kristian Gkolomeev (5), Ben Proud (5), Lorenzo Zazzeri (7)
Current International Record Holders:
- Caeleb Dressel (Olympic Record, 21.07)
- Cam McEvoy (Oceanian and Commonwealth Record, 21.06)
This is one of the few events we’ve seen so far where the qualification time for the semifinals is faster in Paris than it was in both Tokyo and Rio, hinting at some quick swims later tonight and tomorrow. This is also the first time that a sub-22 swim has not made it back for the semifinal. Australia, France, and Italy are returning both of their representatives, leading to a total of 16 swimmers from 13 individual countries, across four different continents.
MEN’S 200 IM
- Daiya Seto, Japan: 1:57.48
- Duncan Scott, Great Britain: 1:57.77
- Leon Marchand, France: 1:57.86
- Alberto Razzetti, Italy: 1:58.00
- Shaine Casas, United States: 1:58.04
- Wang Shun, China: 1:58.09
- Ron Polonsky, Israel/Tom Dean, Great Britain: 1:58.30
- ^tie for seventh
- Jeremy Desplanches, Switzerland: 1:58.46
- Carson Foster, United States: 1:58.63
- Lewis Clareburt, New Zealand/William Petric, Australia: 1:58.84
- ^tie for 11th
- Finlay Knox, Canada: 1:58.97
- Thomas Neill, Australia: 1:59.13
- Jaouad Syoud, Algeria: 1:59.41
- Apostolos Papastamos, Greece: 2:00.79
- Time to Qualify: 2:00.79
- Time to Qualify (Tokyo): 1:58.15
- Time to Qualify (Rio): 1:59.77
Returning Olympic Medalists:
- Wang Shun (Gold, 2021)
- Duncan Scott (Silver, 2021)
Returning Tokyo Finalists:
- Shun Wang (1), Duncan Scott (2), Jeremy Desplanches (3), Daiya Seto (4), Lewis Clareburt (8)
Current International Record Holders:
- Leon Marchand (European Record, 1:54.82)
- Wang Shun (Asian Record, 1:54.62)
- Duncan Scott (Commonwealth Record, 1:55.28)
This is the first games since London 2012 where it has not taken a sub-2:00.00 swim to make the final, but by no means does this allude to slower swims from our top seeds later on down the line. With the reigning Olympic champion in Wang Shun and the hometown hero of Leon Marchand having a stellar meet, we could have some exciting swims in out future. Across these 16 competitors, 13 countries are represented across five continents. Great Britain, United States, and Australia will be the only countries to send both of their delegates back to semifinals tonight.
WOMEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY
- Australia: 7:45.63
- Hungary: 7:52.25
- China: 7:52.36
- United States: 7:52.72
- Brazil: 7:52.81
- Canada: 7:53.03
- Great Britain: 7:53.49
- New Zealand: 7:54.37
- Time to Qualify: 7:54.37
- Time to Qualify (Tokyo): 7:56.16
- Time to Qualify (Rio): 7:53.43
Returning Tokyo Finalists:
- China (1), United States (2), Australia (3), Canada (4), Hungary (7)
Current International Record Holders:
- Australia (World, Oceanian, and Commonwealth Record, 7:37.50)
- China (Olympic and Asian Record, 7:40.33)
- United States (Americas Record, 7:40.73)
- Great Britain (European Record, 7:45.51)
We’re going to see a great many record holders in tonight’s final, looking at the list above. Australia has looked very strong in this race in the past few years, and they look to win their first gold medal in this event since Beijing 2008. Australia featured the fastest split in the field, with Lani Pallister leading off in a 1:55.74. Across these eight individual nations, five continents are represented (2 from Europe, North America, Oceania, 1 from Asia and South America).
FASTEST RELAY SPLITS
- Lani Pallister, Australia: 1:55.74* (Leadoff)
- Brianna Throssell, Australia: 1:55.82
- Liu Yaxin, China: 1:55.84
- Erika Fairweather, New Zealand: 1:56.04 (Leadoff)
- Mary-Sophie Harvey, Canada: 1:56.58
- Erin Gemmell, United States: 1:56.77
- Jamie Perkins, Australia: 1:56.78
- Marrit Steenbergen, Netherlands: 1:56.79
- María Fernanda Costa, Brazil: 1:56.89 (Leadoff)
*Pallister is the first swimmer that we’ve seen back in the pool after testing positive for COVID-19, she tested positive on Tuesday. Unlike the Tokyo games, Paris is not imposing restrictions for athletes who test positive.
NATIONAL RECORDS
Jordan Crooks, Cayman Islands, 50 freestyle: 21.51
- The Tennessee swimmer has found great success in the pool over the past few years, and he made his Olympic debut for the Cayman Islands with the 100 freestyle on Tuesday. This morning, Crooks swam his way to a best time of 21.51 in the 50 free, breaking his previous national record of 21.73 that he set back in 2023 at the Fukuoka World Championships. Crooks is seeded second going into tonight’s semifinals.
Thomas Fannon, Ireland, 50 freestyle: 21.79
- Continuing to ride the Irish wave of success in Paris, Thomas Fannon set a new Irish national record in the splash-n-dash this morning with a time of 21.79. Fannon’s new best time is just under Shane Ryan’s old national record of 21.79 from the European championships in Belgrade back in June.
Note: for the following swimmers, there are seemingly little to no officially-recognized national records on World Aquatics’ website or elsewhere. These universality swimmers swam faster than their seed time, and there are no accessible records of any faster swims for their countries.
- Pedro Rogery, Guinea-Bissau, 50 freestyle: 28.34
- Troy Nisbett, St. Kitts and Nevis, 50 freestyle: 28.71
- Elhadj N’gnane Diallo, Guinea, 50 freestyle: 26.45
- Belly-Cresus Ganira, Burundi, 50 freestyle: 23.80
- Alex Joachim, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 50 freestyle: 23.59
- Tolu Young, Fiji, 50 freestyle: 22.71
Fun Fact: Unless Chalmers pops a 46.7 in December somehow, this will be the first year since 2018 that he will not be ranked 2nd in the 100 freestyle by calendar year best times (excluding 2020 in which no one raced)