2016 Rio Olympic Games
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Day 1 Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
The women’s 400 free relay will be contested on day one, with 16 teams vying for the eight spots in the final. The defending Olympic champions and the 2015 World Champions are the Australians, who boast the lethal combination of Cate Campbell and her sister Bronte Campbell. Bronte was the world champion last year, while Cate recently broke the 100 free world record.
The Australians, along with the Americans, will swim in heat two, while their toughest competition, the Netherlands, swim in heat one. Here’s a look at the complete relay lineups for this mornings session.
Heat 1
- Poland (K.Wilk, A.Tchorz, A.Urbanczyk, A.Dowgiert)
- Japan (M.Uchida, R.Ikee, M.Yamaguchi, Y.Matsumoto)
- Italy (E.Ferraraioli, S.di Pietro, A.Pezzato, F.Pellegrini)
- Netherlands (I.Dekker, M.Steenbergen, M.van der Meer, F.Heemskerk)
- Sweden (M.Coleman, L.Hansson, I.Lindborg, S.Sjostrom)
- China (M.Zhu, M.Sun, Y.Tang, D.Shen)
- Denmark (P.Blume, J.Jensen, S.Bro, M.Nielsen)
- Israel (K.Siebner, Z.Shikler, A.Ivry, A.Murez)
Heat 2
- Spain (F.Gallardo Carapeto, M.Gonzalez Crivillers, P.Castro Ortega, M.Costa Schmid)
- France (B.Gastaldello, C.Bonnet, M.Cini, A.Santamans)
- Canada (S.Mainville, C.van Landeghem, M.Williams, T.Ruck)
- Australia (M.Wilson, B.Elmslie, B.Campbell, C.Campbell)
- United States (A.Weir, L.Neal, A.Schmitt, K.Ledecky)
- Brazil (L.Oliveira, E.Medeiros, D.de Paula, M.Lyrio)
- Russian Federation (V.Popova, V.Andreeva, R.Nasretdinova, N.Lovtcova)
- Switzerland (M.Ugolkova, A.Touretski, D.Villars, N.Girardet)
A few things jump out when looking at the lineups for this mornings relay, including the Australians putting their top two swimmers, Cate and Bronte Campbell, on the prelim lineup. They’ll be joined by Madison Wilson and Brittany Elmslie. Emma McKeon (swimming the 100 fly this morning), will likely come into the final, replacing the slower of Wilson and Elmslie from this morning.
Of note on the American relay is Katie Ledecky, who will anchor the squad despite finishing 7th in the 100 free final in Omaha. Joining her are Amanda Weir, Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt. Their finals relay will feature Abbey Weitzeil and Simone Manuel, who finished 1-2 at Trials, along with the fastest two from prelims (most likely). Dana Vollmer finished 6th at Trials, but with the 100 fly on the same day, will sit this morning’s relay out. She could be put on the finals relay, but it seems unlikely at this point.
Other lineups of note are the Netherlands not including Ranomi Kromowidjojo on their prelim squad, though they have Femke Heemskerk anchoring. The Canadians are using Taylor Ruck this morning, with Penny Oleksiak likely to fill in for her tonight for finals (or the slowest morning swimmer). Sarah Sjostrom will anchor the Swedes.
Check out the full relay lineups here.
Talk about overkill!
Australia have Seebohm, Ngawati, Coutts, Wilson
A couple of those athletes will be really annoyed to miss out on an Olympic gold.
At least they know they’ll be safe!
Wow, Ledecky vs. C1. Welcome to your first (I think!) international 100, Katie!
Ledecky already had a couple of 100 during the pro series which were attended by international swimmers.
I guess I meant on an international team. But you’re right, she raced Sjostrom amongst others during the Pro Series. Super excited for today’s race!
Ledecky swam the 100 at Pan Pacs where countries can have many entries in the prelim, but she did not advance.
Surprised AUS didn’t leave C1 out for Coutts or even Seebohm, but better safe than sorry I suppose.
Wawou Ledecky is anchoring! I hope she drops a 52s split
Bold for both NED and CAN to leave off their best sprinters – hope it works out
They should both still qualify fairly comfortably, assuming Ruck doesn’t have another mare as happened at CAN trials