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Olympics: Men’s 400 Free Relay Lineups Released; Caeleb Dressel Leading Off For USA in Tokyo Debut
The full start lists are out for the men’s 400 free relay final at the Tokyo Olympics, and as expected, superstar Caeleb Dressel will lead off for the United States in his first race of the meet. Dressel first led off for the Americans at the 2016 Olympics, and he also filled the spot at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships. The Americans have won gold in all those races.
Following Dressel will be Blake Pieroni, Bowe Becker and Zach Apple, the same trio that swam the last three legs in the Americans’ prelims relay. Dressel replaces Brooks Curry from the squad that qualified second behind Italy Saturday evening.
Top-seeded Italy, which swam Alessandro Miressi, Santo Condorelli, Lorenzo Zazzeri and Manuel Frigo in prelims, will replace Condorelli with Thomas Ceccon. Ceccon also will compete in the 100 back semifinals shortly before the relay.
Russia, considered a favorite in the event prior to the meet but only the eighth qualifier for the final, will swim a group of Andrei Minakov, Vladislav Grinev, Vladimir Morozov and Kliment Kolesnikov. Kolesnikov replaced Aleksandr Shchegolev, who had a disappointing 49.13 anchor split in prelims. Kolesnikov owns the second-fastest time in the world in the 100 free at 47.31, but he will also be in the 100 back semis shortly before the relay final. Meanwhile, Russia chose not to use Evgeny Rylov on this squad, even though he has split 47.02 on this relay in the past.
Australia, seeded third, will bring in Matthew Temple for Cameron McEvoy on the leadoff leg, while Kyle Chalmers, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 free, will anchor.
Check out the full lineups below:
