Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay

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Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates30 July 2021 (heats)
1 August 2021 (final)
Competitors74 from 16 nations
Teams16
Winning time3:26.78 WR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, Zach Apple, Hunter Armstrong*, Blake Pieroni*, Tom Shields*, Andrew Wilson*Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Luke Greenbank, James Guy, Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, James Wilby*Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain
Bronze medal icon.svg Thomas Ceccon, Nicolò Martinenghi, Federico Burdisso, Alessandro Miressi
*Indicates the swimmer only competed in the preliminary heats.
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
  2016
2024  

The men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 30 July and 1 August 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. [1] It was the event's sixteenth consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1960.

The United States extended their dominance in the event, having won it every time since its introduction in 1960, except for the boycotted 1980 Games and the 2024 Games where they lost to China.

Summary

In the final swimming race at these Games, the U.S. continued their unbeaten streak in the event to take gold in a world record time of 3:26.78, eclipsing the former super-suited mark by half a second. Though a shade off his bronze medal-winning time in the individual 100 m backstroke, Ryan Murphy (52.31) nonetheless got the U.S. out to an early lead of 0.21 seconds. While Michael Andrew's breaststroke split of 58.49 led the U.S. to fall back in third, Caeleb Dressel unleashed the fastest butterfly split of all time in 49.03 to regain the lead. Diving in with a margin of 6-tenths of a second over the field, Zach Apple anchored the U.S. home to gold in 46.95 for their eleventh swimming gold of the Games.

100 m breaststroke world record holder Adam Peaty threw down the fastest breaststroke split ever in 56.53 to give the British team of Luke Greenbank (53.63), James Guy (50.27), and Duncan Scott (47.08) a brief lead of 0.6 seconds on the second leg. Though the U.S. edged them out to the front in the following leg, Great Britain touched in a European record of 3:27.51 - the third fastest performance in history - to defend their silver medal from five years earlier in Rio.

Meanwhile, Italy's well-rounded foursome of Thomas Ceccon (52.52), Nicolò Martinenghi (58.11), Federico Burdisso (51.07) and Alessandro Miressi (47.47) posted a national record of 3:29.17 to secure Italy's first podium finish in the event. Despite a strong back-half - with Andrey Minakov (50.31) and Kliment Kolesnikov (47.03) recording the third-fastest butterfly and freestyle splits in the field - ROC could not close the gap on the Italians to miss the podium by 5-hundredths of a second. Australia, the defending bronze medallists, could not repeat their podium finish, falling to fifth in 3:29.60. Japan took sixth in 3:29.91, breaking China's 2018 Asian record by 0.08 s, while Canada (3:32.42) finished in a distant seventh. China was disqualified from the race owing to an early relay takeover by freestyler He Junyi. [2]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record
3:27.28 Rome, Italy 2 August 2009 [3] [4]
Olympic record
3:27.95 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 13 August 2016 [5] [6]

The following record was established during the competition:

DateEventNameNationTimeRecord
1 AugustFinal
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3:26.78 WR

Qualification

The top 12 teams in this event at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships qualified for the Olympics. An additional 4 teams will qualify through having the fastest times at approved qualifying events during the qualifying period (1 March 2019 to 30 May 2020). [7]

Competition format

The competition consists of two rounds: heats and a final. The relay teams with the best 8 times in the heats advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round. [8]

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) [1]

DateTimeRound
30 July 202121:10Heats
1 August 202111:36Final

Results

Heats

The relay teams with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final. [9]

RankHeatLaneNationSwimmersTimeNotes
115Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Thomas Ceccon (53.20)
Nicolò Martinenghi (57.94)
Federico Burdisso (51.46)
Alessandro Miressi (47.42)
3:30.02Q
224Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain Luke Greenbank (53.79)
James Wilby (59.16)
James Guy (50.77)
Duncan Scott (47.75)
3:31.47Q
325Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC Grigoriy Tarasevich (53.20)
Anton Chupkov (59.55)
Mikhail Vekovishchev (51.20)
Vladislav Grinev (47.71)
3:31.66Q
416Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Xu Jiayu (52.82)
Yan Zibei (58.32)
Sun Jiajun (51.81)
He Junyi (48.77)
3:31.72Q
523Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Ryosuke Irie (53.20)
Ryuya Mura (59.62)
Naoki Mizunuma (51.42)
Katsumi Nakamura (47.78)
3:32.02Q
613Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Mitch Larkin (53.46)
Zac Stubblety-Cook (59.11)
David Morgan (51.97)
Kyle Chalmers (47.54)
3:32.08Q
714Flag of the United States.svg  United States Hunter Armstrong (53.51)
Andrew Wilson (59.20)
Tom Shields (51.33)
Blake Pieroni (48.25)
3:32.29Q
811Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada Markus Thormeyer (53.66)
Gabe Mastromatteo (59.97)
Joshua Liendo (50.92)
Yuri Kisil (47.82)
3:32.37Q
912Flag of Poland.svg  Poland Kacper Stokowski (54.67)
Jan Kozakiewicz (59.24)
Jakub Majerski (50.66)
Jakub Kraska (48.05)
3:32.62 NR
1022Flag of France.svg  France Yohann Ndoye Brouard (52.77)
Antoine Viquerat (59.94)
Léon Marchand (52.05)
Mehdy Metella (48.65)
3:33.41
1127Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Marek Ulrich (54.52)
Lucas Matzerath (58.70)
Marius Kusch (52.38)
Damian Wierling (48.48)
3:34.08
1217Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus Mikita Tsmyh (55.50)
Ilya Shymanovich (58.20)
Yauhen Tsurkin (52.38)
Artsiom Machekin (48.74)
3:34.82
1318Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Richárd Bohus (53.51)
Tamás Takács (1:00.57)
Hubert Kós (51.94)
Péter Holoda (48.89)
3:34.91
1421Flag of Greece.svg  Greece Eyaggelos Makrygiannis (54.07)
Konstadinos Meretsolias (1:00.62)
Andreas Vazaios (53.36)
Apostolos Christou (48.23)
3:36.28
26Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil Guilherme Guido (54.11)
Felipe Lima
Vinicius Lanza
Marcelo Chierighini
DSQ
28Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania Danas Rapšys (54.71)
Andrius Šidlauskas
Deividas Margevičius
Simonas Bilis

Final

[10]

RankLaneNationSwimmersTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg1Flag of the United States.svg  United States Ryan Murphy (52.31)
Michael Andrew (58.49)
Caeleb Dressel (49.03)
Zach Apple (46.95)
3:26.78 WR
Silver medal icon.svg5Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain Luke Greenbank (53.63)
Adam Peaty (56.53)
James Guy (50.27)
Duncan Scott (47.08)
3:27.51 ER
Bronze medal icon.svg4Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Thomas Ceccon (52.52)
Nicolò Martinenghi (58.11)
Federico Burdisso (51.07)
Alessandro Miressi (47.47)
3:29.17 NR
43Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC Evgeny Rylov (52.82)
Kirill Prigoda (59.06)
Andrey Minakov (50.31)
Kliment Kolesnikov (47.03)
3:29.22
57Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Mitch Larkin (53.19)
Zac Stubblety-Cook (58.67)
Matthew Temple (50.78)
Kyle Chalmers (46.96)
3:29.60
62Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Ryosuke Irie (53.05)
Ryuya Mura (58.94)
Naoki Mizunuma (50.88)
Katsumi Nakamura (47.04)
3:29.91 AS
78Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada Markus Thormeyer (53.69)
Gabe Mastromatteo (59.67)
Joshua Liendo (51.02)
Yuri Kisil (48.04)
3:32.42
6Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Xu Jiayu (52.77)
Yan Zibei (58.35)
Sun Jiajun (51.76)
He Junyi
DSQ

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