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The American women lose half of their Olympic gold medal-winning 800 free relay from last summer, yet they still remain the team to beat in the 800 free relay at the FINA World Championships. Having Katie Ledecky on their team is a big reason why.
The team best-equipped to make a run appears to be China, which has three swimmers (Ai Yanhan, Li Bingjie and Shen Duo) who have swum times in the 1:56.7-range in the 200 free this year and a fourth (Liu Zixuan) at 1:57.0.
That depth is great, but even without Maya DiRado, Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin, Americans Leah Smith, Melanie Margalis and Mallory Comerford all went under 1:57 at U.S. Nationals, and Simone Manuel is right behind.
And then there’s Ledecky, who won Olympic gold last year in the 200 free in 1:53.73.
Read below to see what Swimming World’s trio of experts think will happen in Budapest. David Rieder, John Lohn and Andy Ross will each offer their predictions for who will finish on the podium.
Women’s 800 Free Relay
Current Records:
World Record: China — Yang, Zhu, Liu, Pang (2009) — 7:42.08
Championship Record: China — Yang, Zhu, Liu, Pang (2009) — 7:42.08
American Record: Vollmer, Nymeyer, Kukors, Schmitt (2009) — 7:42.56
2015 World Champion: United States — Franklin, Smith, McLaughlin, Ledecky — 7:45.37
2016 Olympic Gold Medalist: United States — Schmitt, Smith, DiRado, Ledecky — 7:43.03
Swimming World Predictions
David Rieder’s Picks:
Gold: United States
Silver: China
Bronze: Australia
John Lohn’s Picks:
Gold: United States
Silver: China
Bronze: Canada
Andy Ross’ Picks:
Gold: United States
Silver: China
Bronze: Canada
Previous Events
Day One:
Day Two:
Day Three:
Day Four:
Day Five:
- FINA CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE
- ULTIMATE SCHEDULE GUIDE
- QUALIFIED HIGH DIVERS
- MEDAL TABLE
- 2015 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
- LIVE RESULTS
- OPEN WATER LIVE RESULTS
- PSYCH SHEET
- DAY EIGHT FINALS HEAT SHEETS
- DAY ONE PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY ONE FINALS RESULTS
- DAY TWO PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY TWO FINALS RESULTS
- DAY THREE PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY THREE FINALS RESULTS
- DAY FOUR PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY FOUR FINALS RESULTS
- DAY FIVE PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY FIVE FINALS RESULTS
- DAY SIX PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY SIX FINALS RESULTS
- DAY SEVEN PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY SEVEN FINALS RESULTS
- DAY EIGHT PRELIMS RESULTS
- DAY EIGHT FINALS RESULTS
I’m not sure Missy Franklin deserves to be mentioned as the part of Olympic golden team in Rio. Shouldn’t be American that lucky to find emergency replacement to cover unexpected drop of almost 2 sec in Franklin’s performance then even Ledecky’s 1:53 split wouldn’t help to save gold medal.
This year team doesn’t look faster. Also the schedule isn’t favorite to Americans: Comerford and Manuel have 800 relay right in between 100 free semi and final and they probably won’t swim to their limits in relay. Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith have 1500 and 200 finals just before this relay. Plus Leah has to remember about challenging 800free and 400IM after that. Hopefully the competition won’t be that tough to require American team to swim at the top of their abilities to win.
bees knees :p
It would be fair to say that this may not be the strongest US W4X200 ever fielded ….. but they will not need to be a peak vintage to win this relay comfortable. Realistically they would need to shoot themselves in the foot not to win. Why ?? Because most everyone else have been decimated by post Olympic retirements and sabbaticals and none of these countries have the requisite depth to fill the gaps.
CHN is likely to be the only other team within camera shot at the finish due to having a fairly even line-up of 1.56-1.57 swimmers but they currently lack someone who can deliver than stormer (sub1.55) leg that might draw them closer to a Ledecky led US.
Bronze ?? They may as well hold a raffle !!
– AUS was silver in Rio and still has the potent weapon of McKeon (1.54 swimmer) but retirements and absentees have decimated the depth and the rest of the squad are basically 1.57high/1,58s. – -CAN …. similar boat to AUS; Oleksiak will be present but has not shown the pace of 2016 so far, Ruck did not make selection and McLean retired.
– ITA still possesses Pellegrini but what is the strength of their lower seeds ?
– HUN maybe a bit of a smokie with the X factor of Hosszu backed up by the likes of Kapas
– JAP is another X factor but not sure of their depth beyond Ikee & Igarishi as they have only sent 9 women to Budapest
CW
AUS, CAN, ITA, HUN, JAP 3-7th place
There’s a slight possibility that HUN reach the podium. Jakabos, Kapas, Kesely, Verraszto in the heats,
then Kapas, Kesely, somebody and Hosszu. We’re the European Champions 🙂 and as you also said AUS and CAN is pretty far from 2016.
Dave, yes you’re right. Otherwise you can find times on the other two important swimming home pages and times doesn’t matter too much, for example in 400IM Hosszu would be with her WR from RIO etc.
anyone know whether psych sheets are out yet?
Provisional start lists (ie teams initial nominations) can be found here – click on results and provisional start list for said event should appear
http://www.fina.org/competition-results/17th-fina-world-championships-2017/swimming/event
FINA app or FINA home page, click results, then click on the special event and you can find it.
thers only a list of entries – no times.
Dave, yes you’re right. Otherwise you can find times on the other two important swimming home pages and times doesn’t matter too much, for example in 400IM Hosszu would be with her WR from RIO etc.