{"id":594572,"date":"2024-08-03T11:03:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T18:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=594572"},"modified":"2024-08-03T11:03:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T18:03:57","slug":"paris-olympics-day-8-finals-u-s-australia-china-to-battle-in-mixed-medley-no-adam-peaty-relay-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-8-finals-u-s-australia-china-to-battle-in-mixed-medley-no-adam-peaty-relay-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 8 Finals: U.S., Australia, China to Battle in Mixed Medley; No Adam Peaty (Relay Lineups)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 8 Finals: U.S., Australia, China to Battle in Mixed Medley; No Adam Peaty (Relay Lineups)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The eighth finals session of the Paris Olympics swimming program will conclude with the mixed 400 medley relay, an event being contested for the second occasion on the Olympic level.<\/p>\n

Click here to view the full relay lineups<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The surprise from the lineup release is that\u00a0Adam Peaty<\/strong> will not contest the breaststroke leg for defending champion Great Britain, ceding the breaststroke leg to\u00a0James Wilby<\/strong>. The Brits will also give\u00a0Duncan Scott<\/strong> a shot on the butterfly leg while\u00a0Kathleen Dawson<\/strong> (backstroke) and\u00a0Anna Hopkin<\/strong> (freestyle) reprise their roles from the gold-medal-winning team in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

The United States, seeded first after prelims, will bring in an entirely new lineup to the final, opting for the traditional male-male-female-female lineup and including four swimmers who won medals in their individual 100-meter events.\u00a0Ryan Murphy<\/strong> will swim backstroke, followed by\u00a0Nic Fink<\/strong> on breaststroke,\u00a0Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> on butterfly and Torri Huske<\/strong> on freestyle. Huske was the gold medalist in the 100 butterfly ahead of Walsh, but Huske is the fastest freestyler by a significant margin, necessitating her inclusion on that stroke.<\/p>\n

Second-seeded Australia will have gold-medal-winning women going first and last, Kaylee McKeown<\/strong> and\u00a0Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong>, but the performance of the men set to handle the middle legs, Joshua Yong<\/strong> and\u00a0Matt Temple<\/strong>, will decide the Aussies fate. Yong earned his spot over 200-meter specialist\u00a0Zac Stubblety-Cook<\/strong> with a sub-59 breaststroke leg in Saturday’s prelims of the men’s 400 medley relay.<\/p>\n

After testing out an alternate lineup in Friday’s prelims, using 100 freestyle gold medalist\u00a0Pan Zhanle<\/strong> anchoring after two women swam the middle legs, China returns to the traditional order here, with\u00a0Xu Jiayu<\/strong>,\u00a0Qin Haiyang<\/strong>,\u00a0Zhang Yufei<\/strong> and\u00a0Yang Junxuan<\/strong>. Those first three swimmers were part of China’s world-title-winning lineup last year. All four were individual 100-meter finalists, but Qin has struggled mightily this meet, falling to seventh in the 100 breast and out of the final in the 200 breast. Xu won 100 back silver while Zhang took third in the 100 fly.<\/p>\n

Expect the medals to come down to those three teams, but the Netherlands could threaten with\u00a0Kira Toussaint<\/strong>,\u00a0Caspar Corbeau<\/strong>,\u00a0Nyls Korstanje<\/strong> and\u00a0Marrit Steenbergen<\/strong>. If Toussaint can stay somewhat close to McKeown on the opening leg, the Dutch have a shot. Canada, meanwhile, will need\u00a0Finlay Knox<\/strong> to put together a strong breaststroke leg, but his teammates\u00a0Kylie Masse <\/strong>(back),\u00a0Josh Liendo<\/strong> (fly) and Maggie Mac Neil\u00a0<\/strong>(free) will be strong.<\/p>\n

In lane one, France will bring in superstar Leon Marchand<\/strong> to swim breaststroke following backstroker\u00a0Yohann Ndoye-Brouard<\/strong>, with\u00a0Marie Wattel<\/strong> and\u00a0Beryl Gastadello<\/strong> to bring the team home.Meet Results<\/a><\/p>\n