Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay

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Men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates27 July 2021 (heats)
28 July 2021 (final)
Competitors73 from 16 nations
Teams16
Winning time6:58.58 ER
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Thomas Dean, James Guy, Matthew Richards, Duncan Scott, Calum Jarvis*Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Silver medal icon.svg Martin Malyutin, Ivan Girev, Evgeny Rylov, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Aleksandr Krasnykh*, Mikhail Vekovishchev*Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC
Bronze medal icon.svg Alexander Graham, Kyle Chalmers, Zac Incerti, Thomas Neill, Mack Horton*, Elijah Winnington*
*Indicates the swimmer only competed in the preliminary heats.
Flag of Australia.svg  Australia
  2016
2024  

The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 27 and 28 July 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. [1] It was the event's twenty-sixth consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1908.

The medals for competition were presented by IOC Member David Haggerty, and the gifts were presented by Qatar's FINA Bureau Member Khaleel Al Jabir.

Summary

After achieving a quinella in the individual 200 m freestyle, Great Britain duly upgraded their silver from Rio five years earlier with an Olympic title. Led off by the 200 freestyle Olympic champion Tom Dean in a time of 1:45.72 – 1.5 seconds off his winning time – Great Britain surprisingly fell almost a second behind the pace of the Americans. However, the British team's cumulative depth eventually told as the 2015 World champion at the distance, James Guy (1:44.40), moved the team into the lead before youngster Matthew Richards (1:45.01) extended the margin over the field from 0.13 to 1.45 seconds. Duncan Scott, the silver medallist behind Dean, split a sterling 1:43.45 – the quickest in the field – to anchor the British home to an Olympic record of 6:58.58, just 0.03 seconds outside the world record.

Meanwhile, Russia's Martin Malyutin (1:45.69), Ivan Giryov (1:45.63) and 100 m backstroke champion Evgeny Rylov (1:45.26) handed over the anchor leg duties to Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:45.23), who held off Australia's Thomas Neill by 0.03 seconds to secure the ROC the silver in 7:01.81. With Australia in fourth heading into the final changeover after swims from Alexander Graham (1:46.00), Kyle Chalmers (1:45.35) and Zac Incerti (1:45.75), Neill blasted a 1:44.74 split to deliver the quartet a bronze medal in 7:01.84.

The U.S. failed to win a relay medal (when entering an event) for the first time in Olympic swimming history. [2] Kieran Smith (1:44.81) had the U.S. in the lead before handing over to Drew Kibler (1:45.51), who was overtaken by Great Britain's Guy to touch in second. Coming off the 100 free semi-finals earlier in the session, third swimmer Zach Apple (1:47.31) faded over the closing stages of his leg to fall behind the Italians and Australians. Though the U.S.' anchor Townley Haas (1:44.87) surpassed Italy's Stefano Di Cola (1:46.26), he could not close the gap on the Australians as the U.S. settled for fourth in 7:02.43. In podium contention at the final changeover, Italy's foursome of Stefano Ballo (1:45.77), Matteo Ciampi (1:45.88), Filippo Megli (1:45.33) and Di Cola missed the medals to take fifth in 7:03.24.

Led off by Antonio Djakovic, who clocked a Swiss record of 1:45.77, Switzerland's quartet also touched in a national record of 7:06.12 to claim sixth. Germany (7:06.51) and Brazil (7:08.22), led off by the bronze medalist in the individual 200 m Fernando Scheffer, rounded out the championship field.

Records

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

World record
6:58.55 Rome, Italy 31 July 2009 [3] [4]
Olympic record
6:58.56 Beijing, China 13 August 2008 [5]

No new Olympic or World records were set during the competition.

Great Britain set a European record in the final, the third-fastest time ever (behind only the Olympic and World records) and the fastest time ever swum in a textile suit. Israel and Switzerland (twice) set national records.

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). [6]

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. [7]

Schedule

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

DateTimeRound
27 July19:58Heats
28 July12:26Final

Results

Heats

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

RankHeatLaneNationSwimmersTimeNotes
123Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain Matthew Richards (1:46.35)
James Guy (1:44.66)
Calum Jarvis (1:45.53)
Thomas Dean (1:46.71)
7:03.25Q
224Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Alexander Graham (1:45.72)
Mack Horton (1:47.51)
Elijah Winnington (1:46.19)
Zac Incerti (1:45.58)
7:05.00Q
315Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Stefano Di Cola (1:47.00)
Matteo Ciampi (1:45.64)
Marco De Tullio (1:46.78)
Filippo Megli (1:45.63)
7:05.05Q
414Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:46.56)
Aleksandr Krasnykh (1:46.78)
Ivan Girev (1:45.71)
Mikhail Vekovishchev (1:46.11)
7:05.16Q
525Flag of the United States.svg  United States Drew Kibler (1:46.12)
Andrew Seliskar (1:46.17)
Patrick Callan (1:47.12)
Blake Pieroni (1:46.21)
7:05.62Q
617Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland Antonio Djakovic (1:46.41)
Nils Liess (1:47.23)
Noè Ponti (1:47.11)
Roman Mityukov (1:45.84)
7:06.59Q, NR
722Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Lukas Märtens (1:47.27)
Poul Zellmann (1:45.80)
Henning Mühlleitner (1:48.11)
Jacob Heidtmann (1:45.58)
7:06.76Q
826Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil Luiz Altamir Melo (1:48.01)
Fernando Scheffer (1:46.09)
Murilo Sartori (1:46.76)
Breno Correia (1:46.87)
7:07.73Q
913Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Ji Xinjie (1:47.14)
Hong Jinquan (1:48.17)
Zhang Ziyang (1:46.89)
Wang Shun (1:46.07)
7:08.27
1011Flag of Israel.svg  Israel Denis Loktev (1:46.64 NR )
Daniel Namir (1:47.41)
Tomer Frankel (1:48.19)
Gal Cohen Groumi (1:46.41)
7:08.65 NR
1116Flag of France.svg  France Jordan Pothain (1:47.30)
Hadrien Salvan (1:48.09)
Enzo Tesic (1:46.84)
Jonathan Atsu (1:46.65)
7:08.88
1227Flag of Japan.svg  Japan Konosuke Yanagimoto (1:48.50)
Katsuhiro Matsumoto (1:45.35)
Kosuke Hagino (1:47.90)
Kotaro Takahashi (1:47.78)
7:09.53
1321Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea Lee Yoo-yeon (1:49.55)
Hwang Sun-woo (1:48.88)
Kim Woo-min (1:49.24)
Lee Ho-joon (1:47.36)
7:15.03
1428Flag of Ireland.svg  Ireland Jack McMillan (1:46.66 NR )
Finn McGeever (1:48.46)
Brendan Hyland (1:51.28)
Shane Ryan (1:49.08)
7:15.48
1518Flag of Poland.svg  Poland Kacper Majchrzak (1:49.32)
Jakub Kraska (1:47.94)
Kamil Sieradzki (1:50.44)
Radosław Kawęcki (1:51.21)
7:18.91
12Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary Balázs Holló (1:47.41)
Gabor Zombori (1:47.27)
Dominik Kozma
Richárd Márton
DSQ

Final

[9]

RankLaneNationSwimmersTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain Thomas Dean (1:45.72)
James Guy (1:44.40)
Matthew Richards (1:45.01)
Duncan Scott (1:43.45)
6:58.58 ER
Silver medal icon.svg6Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC Martin Malyutin (1:45.69)
Ivan Giryov (1:45.63)
Evgeny Rylov (1:45.26)
Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:45.23)
7:01.81
Bronze medal icon.svg5Flag of Australia.svg  Australia Alexander Graham (1:46.00)
Kyle Chalmers (1:45.35)
Zac Incerti (1:45.75)
Thomas Neill (1:44.74)
7:01.84
42Flag of the United States.svg  United States Kieran Smith (1:44.74)
Drew Kibler (1:45.51)
Zach Apple (1:47.31)
Townley Haas (1:44.87)
7:02.43
53Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Stefano Ballo (1:45.77)
Matteo Ciampi (1:45.88)
Filippo Megli (1:45.33)
Stefano Di Cola (1:46.26)
7:03.24
67Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland Antonio Djakovic (1:45.77 NR )
Nils Liess (1:47.74)
Noè Ponti (1:46.93)
Roman Mityukov (1:45.68)
7:06.12 NR
71Flag of Germany.svg  Germany Lukas Märtens (1:46.68)
Poul Zellmann (1:46.30)
Henning Mühlleitner (1:48.04)
Jacob Heidtmann (1:45.49)
7:06.51
88Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil Fernando Scheffer (1:45.93)
Murilo Sartori (1:46.09)
Breno Correia (1:48.11)
Luiz Altamir Melo (1:48.09)
7:08.22

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