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2024 Paris Olympics Day 1 Relay Finals: Both 100 Free World Record Holders Will Lead Off

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

Finals lineups for the women’s and men’s 4×100 freestyle relays have been posted, and there aren’t many surprises.

We wrote about how the United States had some interesting decisions to make on which prelims athlete gets the finals nod, and we have our answer. Simone Manuel and Caeleb Dressel will anchor Team USA’s relays tonight.

It’s a familiar position for Manuel, who has had some clutch anchor legs throughout her career, but a new one for Dressel, who has typically been tapped for the lead-off based on the strength of his start.

As expected, the Australian women have tagged in Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack. The one surprise is Meg Harris has been drafted for anchor duties over Emma McKeon. Besides that swap, the lineup is identical to the one the Aussies used to set the world record last summer.

China tagged in Zhang Yufei over Yu Yiting. She will have a double tonight (as will Team USA’s core of Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske).

It seems like clean water is the name of the game tonight, as most teams have opted to lead with their fastest swimmer. Yang Junxuan moves from anchor position to first, as do Kate Douglass and Sarah Sjostrom.

The Canadian women have brought in Maggie MacNeil to lead off, but if you direct your attention to the third leg, Summer McIntosh will also feature on this relay. MacNeil will have the 100 fly semifinal at the start of the session, but McIntosh will be fresh off the 400 free final where she is expected to fight for a medal. She didn’t handle it well last summer in Fukuoka; how will she do here?

We might be on world record watch in the men’s heat: Pan Zhanle will lead-off China’s relay. The world record holder split 46.98 this morning, showing he is very much in form. Josh Liendo also jumps to the front of Canada’s relay after splitting an impressive 47.25 on the anchor leg this morning.

Australia is the one of the only medal contenders to keep their fastest man (Kyle Chalmers) on the anchor, though they’ve swapped William Yang for Kai Taylor tonight.

Great Britain also made a single athlete swap, tagging out Alexander Cohoon for Matt Richards.

As predicted, Italy is bringing in Alessandro Miressi and Thomas Ceccon, adding a lot of firepower to their relay that finished 6th out of prelims. Keep an eye out for the defending silver medalists in lane 7 tonight.

Expect the first legs of these relays to be out very, very fast as both the women’s and men’s events feature the world record holder in the 100 freestyle.

Women’s 4×100 Free Relay Finals Lineups:

  1. Great Britain
    1. Anna Hopkin
    2. Eva Okaro
    3. Lucy Hope
    4. Freya Anderson
  2. France
    1. Beryl Gastaldello
    2. Charlotte Bonnet
    3. Mary-Ambre Moluh
    4. Marie Wattel
  3. China
    1. Yang Junxuan
    2. Cheng Yujie
    3. Zhang Yufei
    4. Wu Qingfeng
  4. Australia
    1. Mollie O’Callaghan
    2. Shayna Jack
    3. Emma McKeon
    4. Meg Harris
  5. USA
    1. Kate Douglass
    2. Gretchen Walsh
    3. Torri Huske
    4. Simone Manuel
  6. Sweden
    1. Sarah Sjostrom
    2. Michelle Coleman
    3. Sara Junevik
    4. Louise Hansson
  7. Canada
    1. Maggie MacNeil
    2. Taylor Ruck
    3. Summer McIntosh
    4. Penny Oleksiak
  8. Italy
    1. Sofia Morini
    2. Chiara Tarantino
    3. Sara Curtis
    4. Emma Virginia Menicucci

Men’s 4×100 Free Relay Finals Lineups:

  1. Hungary
    1. Nandor Nemeth
    2. Szebasztian Szabo
    3. Adam Jaszo
    4. Hubert Kos
  2. Canada
    1. Josh Liendo
    2. Yuri Kisil
    3. Finlay Knox
    4. Javier Acevedo
  3. Great Britain
    1. Matthew Richards
    2. Jacob Whittle
    3. Tom Dean
    4. Duncan Scott
  4. China
    1. Pan Zhanle
    2. Ji Xinjie
    3. Chen Juner
    4. Wang Haoyu
  5. Australia
    1. Jack Cartwright
    2. Flynn Southam
    3. Kai Taylor
    4. Kyle Chalmers
  6. USA
    1. Jack Alexy
    2. Chris Guiliano
    3. Hunter Armstrong
    4. Caeleb Dressel
  7. Italy
    1. Alessandro Miressi
    2. Thomas Ceccon
    3. Paolo Conte Bonin
    4. Manuel Frigo
  8. Germany
    1. Josha Salchow
    2. Rafael Miroslaw
    3. Luca Armbruster
    4. Peter Varjasi

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Zach
3 months ago

Lead off legs looking very much like a 100 Free final

Sweet Sweet Peter Rosen
3 months ago

Is America going fastest to slowest in both relays?

Boomer
3 months ago

Guess Scott and Dean were conserving energy this morning?

Joel Lin
3 months ago

Pure DeSorbo sorcery.

“oh Gretchen, peaked early, died in the last 15 meters, didn’t meet the moment….”

Nope. Queen gotta Queen.

Horninco
3 months ago

I think with the pool seeming to be slow (which we may settle tonight) it makes sense to put your fastest swimmers first to try to get to clean water.

I would be surprised to see a WR on the lead off or the relay tonight unless all the top swimmers were playing serious possum this morning

NCSwimFan
3 months ago

USA men’s order is a bit questionable, Chalmers and Scott could absolutely be bearing down on Dressel, but if he gets into a lot of open water it should be wraps.

NDB
Reply to  NCSwimFan
3 months ago

The fact that they’re putting dressel last might tell us something about his performance being measured this morning

Buffalo Joe
3 months ago

Huge error not having Huske lead off. She stinks on exchanges

Justin Pollard
Reply to  Buffalo Joe
3 months ago

She did poorly once, right? Last Olympics? Is she consistently bad? I wouldn’t think so, but the data is out there

Kevin
Reply to  Justin Pollard
3 months ago

She’s only had 1 disaster but she tends to be basically the same flat or flying so relay exchanges don’t seem to help her the way it does other swimmers. Been true on the international team and in the NCAA

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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