Women’s Medley Relay Prelims Lineups: U.S. Opts For White-Walsh-Hinds-Brown Team

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Duna Arena
• LCM (50-meter format)
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Prior to the last heat session of the 2022 World Championships, the relay lineups for the women’s 4×100 medley relay prelims have been released.

The United States may just have the most intriguing lineup that we’ve seen to date. Because T0rri Huske and Claire Curzan are representing the U.S. in so many 100-meter individual events and need to be rested for finals, many of the people on this prelims squad did not swim the 100-meter event for their stroke individually.

Rhyan White will be swimming backstroke, which means coaches had chosen her over Katharine Berkoff. White qualified individually in the 200 back while Berkoff qualified in the 50 back, but White had finished third in the 100 back at U.S. trials compared to Berkoff’s fourth place finish.

Alex Walsh will be on breaststroke, despite the fact that the United States has two available 100 breaststrokers in Lily King and Annie Lazor. Walsh finished fifth in the 100 breast at U.S. trials in a time of 1:07.59. Although King has been struggling with the after effects of COVID-19 , she still has gotten stronger and stronger  as the meet went on and recently won the 200 breast. Lazor, on the other hand, competed in the 100 breast but was DQed in semi-finals. The decisions of the U.S. coaches indicates that either Lazor or King will not be swimming on this relay at all. Notably, they did not opt to use Kate Douglass for this stroke, even though she had just swam in the 200 breast this week and earned bronze.

Douglass, the next-highest placing 100 flyer at U.S. trials, will not be swimming the butterfly leg of this relay either. Instead, the spot will go to Natalie Hinds, who finished seventh in the 100 fly at U.S. trials and holds a best time of 58.45. And finally, Erika Brown will be swimming freestyle just like she did in the heats of the mixed medley and free relay.

Canada and Australia, the two teams that will likely be challenging the U.S. for the podium, both have opted to go for near full-strength lineups. Australia will be u McKeown-Strauch-Throssell-Wilson, with the only potential finals swap being replacing Madi Wilson for Mollie O’Callaghan on freestyle. Similarly, the only changes that could be made to Canada’s Wilm-Wog-MacNeil-Sanchez lineup would be replacing Ingrid Wilm with Kylie Masse on back and Kayla Sanchez with Penny Oleksiak on free. Kelsey Wog will be swimming the ever-so important breaststroke leg for Canada, giving her an opportunity to prove herself in the 100 breast distance after a season-best time in the 200 this week.

Full Lineups:

Heat 1:

1. Thailand
2. Brazil (Balduccini, Alves de Conceicao, Tomanik Diamante, Veira)
3. Sweden (Rosvall, Hansson S., Hansson L, Sjostrom)
4. United States (White, Walsh, Hinds, Brown)
5. Great Britain (Harris, Henshaw, Stephens, Hope)
6. Netherlands (Toussaint, Schouten, de Waard, Steenbergen)
7. Greece

Heat 2:

1. Israel (Barzelay, Gorbenko, Polonsky, Golovaty)
2. France (Terebo, Blanchetiere, Wattel, Bonnet)
3. China (Peng, Yu, Zhang, Yang)
4. Australia (McKeown, Strauch, Throssell, Wilson)
5. Canada (Wilm, Wog, MacNeil, Sanchez)
6. Italy (Scalia, Castiglioni, di Liddo, di Pietro)
7. South Korea (Lee, Moon, Jung, Hur)