Olympics: Day Six Prelims Heat Sheets Posted; Mixed Medley Relay Makes Debut

Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher/USA Today Sports

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Olympics: Day Six Prelims Heat Sheets Posted; Mixed Medley Relay Makes Debut

The second-to-last evening of swimming prelims competition at the Tokyo Olympics will begin Thursday evening at 7 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET in the U.S.). The schedule includes the women’s 800 freestyle, men’s 100 butterfly, women’s 200 backstroke and then two heats of the mixed 400 medley relay, which will be contested in the Olympics for the very first time.

Katie Ledecky will be back in the pool for her final event of the meet, the 800 free, and she is seeded first by about four seconds. Ariarne Titmus, who has captured gold in the 400 free and 200 free and bronze in the 800 free relay already at these Games, will be seeded fourth, so we will see if Titmus can extend her range to the 16-lap race and pose a legitimate challenge to Ledecky.

The men’s 100 butterfly sees Caeleb Dressel back in the pool in the men’s 100 butterfly, an event where he holds the world record and has won the past two world titles. Hungary’s Kristof Milak, the gold medalist in the 200 fly, has the best chance of anyone (and still not a good one) of challenging Dressel in this race, while Australia’s Matthew Temple, Russia’s Andrei Minakov, France’s Mehdy Metella, young Bulgarian Josef Miladinkov and Great Britian’s James Guy are among other contenders.

With world-record holder Regan Smith having not qualified for the U.S. team in the 200 back, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown will be heavy favorites for Olympic gold. Italy’s Margherita Panziera, 100 back silver medalist Kylie Masse and Americans Rhyan White (fourth in the 200 back) and Phoebe Bacon.

Finally, the mixed 400 medley relay will see preliminary action to set up Saturday morning’s final in the event. China set the world record of 3:38.41 last year, while Great Britain, Australia and the United States will all contend for Olympic gold. It will be interesting to see how the various countries choose to stack their team both in prelims and finals to maximize their performance.

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