2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Swimming: August 6-13
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
- Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
- SwimSwam previews
- Rio Schedule & Results
- Live Stream (NBC)
After registering the 4th fastest split in the entire field in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay on Sunday, helping the Americans to gold in the event for the first time since 2009, the question arose: will Michael Phelps swim on the men’s 4×200 free relay?
He certainly makes a compelling case.
Phelps initially wanted to post a time fast enough to have him considered for this relay back in early June at the Longhorn Elite Invite, but ultimately failed to do so going just 1:48.73 in Austin.
After completely scratching the 200 free at the US Olympic Trials, many questioned whether or not Phelps would contest this relay in the Olympic final, one he has been apart of since 2002 for the Americans.
After his 47.12 split in the 400 free relay, there’s no question Phelps is on good freestyle form; and good form in general. Is there anything that could keep him off this relay?
The main issue is that the men’s 4×200 free relay final tonight is about 70 minutes after Phelps’ 200 fly final. A double we’ve seen him handle easily in the past, is that enough time for the 31 year-old Phelps to recover and put in a competitive 200 free? I believe it is.
Phelps has raced multiple times in sessions throughout his comeback, though he has tried to avoid doing it at the biggest meets. The fatigue during the race is the only real worry; not necessarily the fatigue throughout the rest of the meet. He has only the 200 IM prelims and semis on Wednesday, an event he can cruise into the final easily with.
At the end of the day, there’s no question whether or not Phelps will show up for his country if given the opportunity, and if he’s not the team will still be the favorites for gold. It all comes down to the coaches, but there’s no doubt he’s made his case.
A Phelps addition to the final would put Trials 3rd and 4th place finishers Jack Conger and Ryan Lochte into the prelims for sure, along with Gunnar Bentz and Clark Smith who finished 5th and 6th.
If they weren’t going to use Phelps they could’ve done something like, say, let Lochte rest until the final and put someone else in the prelims. Maybe Townley Haas, who won Trials but is over ten years younger than Lochte, or someone like Blake Pieroni, who qualified in the 400 free relay but would no doubt get the job done here.
Though it may be tempting to sit the veteran Lochte until the final, his 4th place finish at Trials didn’t grant him that opportunity. He has yet to race at these Games, so the fatigue factor with him shouldn’t be much of a concern.
He’ll have to be careful though, because if the relay turns out the way it looks like it may, and one of the three prelim swimmers goes faster than Lochte in the heats, he could find himself in the crowd come the final.
To me, if you have the GOAT, you use the GOAT. But, I will bet on Lochte getting the call to try to make sure he gets a shot at gold. And remember, if he had not been competing at the same time as Phelps, Lochte might well be the one being debated as the greatest.
The best swimmers should go first on the relay so the others have clear water.
The U.S. will win this relay, with or without Phelps… if not for the 2-man limit, the U.S. would likely have put 4 swimmers in the final (I’m guessing Lochte will be faster than at Trials and Conger can match his Trials time, neither a given, but…) No other country had more than one, and there’s no monster 1:42 out there to shake things up. If it were me, I’d preserve Phelps for the 200 fly showdown tomorrow, and later events. But… I have a feeling he’s going to be on the relay and you can’t argue too hard; even coming out of the fly he’s more than likely one of the fastest splits in the race.
I know Phelps will deliver a 1:44.0 or something if they use him, but I hope they don’t. I think the recovery time after 200fly tonight would be very important for him the rest of the week.
When does the final decision have to be made and declared? One option would be to assess the prelim times of others, see how Phelps fares in the 200 fly final and how he feels shortly afterwards.
WAHOOSWIMFAN – The lineups have been being released 50-60 minutes before the session, so they would have to decide before his 200 fly.
Enthusiasm for Phelps’s 47.12 split in the 4×100 must be tempered slightly by the fact that he had a very aggressive reaction time. That was more like a 47.3 “swim”coupled with a “damn near, but not quite a DQ” exchange.
Takes skill to have a .08 reaction time! Certainly the product of years of practice, not luck. Simply adds to my amazement!
You’re both right.
More than this, I’m excited to realize what his performance in the 4×1 shows about the form of his shorter freestyle in the IM! Freestyle speed has never been his best asset, and recently the last leg of the 200 IM looked a little lacking (by Phelps standards of course). Good things to come in the 200 IM!
I’m leaning towards he won’t swim this one. He time trialed a 100 free in Atlanta, but I haven’t heard anything about testing his speed against the others in the 200. Sure he would probably throw down a big swim, but like many others have mentioned they can do this one without him and he has other swims to consider.
US can win without Phelps. He needs to take down Le Clos in both the flys.
Le Clos isn’t his main concern…it’s definitely the Hungarians …He openly admitted that the 2 Hungarians finish off that race so well and he needs to see where he can improve on ….said that on Aussie TV
Remember Le clos just had a strong 200 free..
I agree, don’t think either Phelps or Le Clos showed too much in the semi.
yeah too bad they don’t get to swim that one again tonight…the USA is the only country that can afford to play with their prelim line-up and be safe to make it into finals.
Phelps will not swim the relay…I hope. Team USA will get it done without him and Michael will have his hands full with the young Hungarian and Le Clos. Le Clos will be a different animal tonight with no 200 free one hour before the 200 fly final. Las Vegas is NOT picking Phelps to win this event FYI.
Who is Vegas picking? I think Cseh is the biggest threat. He saves so much energy by single-kicking for the first three laps, without losing speed. I think Phelps will have to be out fast and hold on; as in 2012 but this time with better conditioning, more front-end speed, and a better finish. The younger Hungarian is great but I’ll be surprised if he goes more than a few tenths faster than last night.