{"id":480426,"date":"2021-06-30T14:37:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T21:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=480426"},"modified":"2021-06-30T14:37:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T21:37:22","slug":"swim-poll-of-the-week-who-wins-the-mens-4x200-free-relay-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swim-poll-of-the-week-who-wins-the-mens-4x200-free-relay-in-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim Poll of the Week: Who Wins The Men’s 4×200 Free Relay in Tokyo?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Wednesday June 30, 2021, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products<\/a>. In our last poll, we wanted to know:\u00a0Who will win the men’s 4×200 free relay<\/a> in Tokyo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside of the boycotted 1980 Olympics, the American men have won a medal in every single swimming relay ever contested at the Olympics. Every single one. The vast majority of those teams have been gold medalists, but third place has been the basement. The longest-running Olympic relay is the men\u2019s 800 freestyle relay, and the Americans have 24 medals in 24 appearances in that relay.<\/p>\n

The streak is in significant jeopardy. The American prospects in the 200 free have been questionable for several years since\u00a0Michael Phelps<\/strong>\u00a0retired, and after the Americans settled for silver at the 2017 Worlds, they fell to bronze in 2019\u2014getting onto the podium by just 0.03 over Italy and 0.06 over Great Britain.<\/p>\n

But surely, some swimmers would emerge prior to the Olympic year to help lead the Americans back to respectability, maybe not an absolute gold-medal favorite but at least a strong squad. But instead, as swimmers around the world kept posting rocket-quick times, no Americans stood out in the leadup to Trials.\u00a0Kieran Smith<\/strong>\u00a0was the only man to have broken 1:47 in 2021 prior to coming to Omaha.<\/p>\n

Prior to Tuesday evening\u2019s 200 free final, the Americans\u2019 composite 800 free relay based on in-season best times was almost three seconds behind in the composite time based on the 2021 season-best times, but the U.S. 200 freestyle situation finally took a step forward Tuesday evening as\u00a0Smith won the event in 1:45.29<\/a>\u2014almost a second quicker than his lifetime best prior to the meet\u2014while\u00a0Townley Haas<\/strong>\u00a0swam his fastest 200 free in three years in finishing second, and\u00a0Drew Kibler<\/strong>\u00a0dropped more than a second from his pre-meet best time to finish third in 1:45.92.<\/p>\n

Andrew Seliskar<\/strong>\u00a0also qualified to the team with his fourth-place time of 1:46.34, while\u00a0Zach Apple<\/strong>\u00a0(1:46.45) and\u00a0Patrick Callan<\/strong>\u00a0(1:46.49) will almost certainly be selected for Tokyo as relay alternates.<\/p>\n

Now, compare that to what Great Britain, Russia and Australia have in this event: at least four men who have swum under 1:46 in 2021.\u00a0Duncan Scott<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Tom Dean<\/strong>\u00a0have each been in the 1:44-mid range, and they are the top two swimmers in the world this year. Russia has\u00a0Martin Malyutin<\/strong>\u00a0under 1:45. Australia doesn\u2019t have a standout at this point, but\u00a0Kyle Chalmers<\/strong>\u00a0certainly has 1:44 potential.<\/p>\n

Take the composite of the four countries\u2019 best times compared, and Great Britain is first, followed by Russia and then Australia. The Americans? Considerably behind.<\/p>\n