2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Day 2 Finals Live Recap
Europe scored four medals on day two of the Tokyo Olympics and three of them came in the men’s 100 breaststroke final.
Adam Peaty became the first British swimmer to ever defend an Olympic title by winning the men’s 100 breast with a time of 57.37.
In 2016, Peaty won the race with a significant lead of 1.56 seconds over 2nd place finisher Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa. Peaty posted a 57.17 in that race.
On day 2 of the Tokyo Olympics, he came within half a second of his World Record from 2019 but only had a .63 lead over the field.
Europe swept the podium in the men’s 100 breast final where the Netherlands’ Arno Kamminga took 2nd place (58.00) and Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi placed 3rd (58.33).
Martinenghi and Kamminga both broke National Records in the semifinals, and Martinenghi was just .05 off his National Record and Kamminga came within .20 of his National Record.
The 100 breast was Peaty’s only individual Olympic medal in 2016, alongside a silver medal in the men’s 400 medley relay.
Europe’s 4th Olympic medal of the day came in the men’s 400 free relay where Italy took 2nd place with a National Record time of 3:10.11, crushing the previous record from prelims set by the three of the same men who swam it in prelims by .18.
Quick Hits
- Italy won their first-ever Olympic medal in the 400 free relay. Their finals team of Alessandro Miressi, Thomas Ceccon, Lorenzo Zazzeri, and Manuel Frigo won silver with a National Record-setting time of (3:10.11).
- In prelims, Italy’s team of Miressi, Santo Condorelli, Zazzeri, and Frigo set the National Record with a time of 3:10.29. Miressi led-off the relay with a time of 47.46 to come within .01 of his Italian National Record.
- In the women’s 100 breast, Mona McSharry became Ireland’s first woman to make an Olympic final since 1996. She placed 8th with a time of 1:06.59, about .30 off of her Irish National Record set earlier this year.
Continental and National Records on Day 2
- Anastasia Gorbenko broke the 100 back National Record with a time of 59.30 to place 8th in semifinals
- 19-year-old Isabel Gose broke the German National Record in the 400 free prelims race with a time of 4:03.21, taking down Sarah Kohler’s record from 2017 by about .7.
- Italy’s men’s 400 free relay of Miressi, Condorelli, Zazzeri, and Frigo set a National Record with a time of (3:10.29) to be the fastest team in prelims and they smashed it again in finals (3:10.11)
Europe Medal Table Through Day 2
| Nation | Total Medals | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Italy | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
random factoid: as far as I can tell Arno Kamminga is only the 3rd Dutch man to ever win an individual Olympic medal. The only gold medalist being PVDH (ofc), and Wieger Mensonides having won a bronze in 1960 (in the 200 breast).
Wow. I would have thought a lot more judging by the success of Dutch female swimmers
I know! For some reason I thought there were more too. The Dutch women do tend to carry most of the medal tally in all sports for the Netherlands though 😉
Seems to be the same too with the women for Denmark and Sweden.
It’s a lot harder to repeat Olympic Gold than people think. You have to be the fastest in the world 4 years apart. In this case, 5 years apart. That’s a big age gap in terms of wear and tear on the body.
People think it’s common with the big names like Ledecky or Phelps doing it, but it’s so so hard and we take it for granted.
On the basis of his reaction, Peaty seemed to really value that win much more than in Rio. In interview dropped multiple F-bombs on BBC. Fabulous stuff.
Nice. Haven’t seen the interview but pleased for him and it sets him apart as the best British swimmer of all time.
And yes he is the best 100 Breastroke swimmer of all time. It seems like the days of guys doing 100/200 at the the highest level are over. The sprint Breastroke technique has changes so much but can’t last for 200m.
Over until it isn’t over
Kamminga 57/2:06 has entered the chat
lets wait until Kamminga’s 200 before saying the days of high level 100/200 guys are done
Greatest 100 breast swimmer of all time.
Whoever downvoted this, who is better than him? SMH
Michael Andrew
Anastasia Gorbenko set an Israeli record of 59.30 to qualify for the 100 back final, haven’t seen that mentioned in either Europe or Asia so thought I’d point it out.