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Olympics: Mixed Medley Relay Lineups Released; USA Goes With Murphy, Jacoby, Huske and Dressel
The lineups for each country competing in the inaugural Olympic final of the mixed 400 medley relay have been released. The event consists of one swimmer competing in 100 meters of backstroke, then breaststroke, then butterfly and then freestyle, and teams pick two women and two men that can race in any order they want. For many of the countries, the four swimmers and their stroke assignments was pretty straightforward, but the United States in particular had several combinations that would create a medal-contending relay.
The Americans have chosen a lineup of men’s 100 back bronze medalist Ryan Murphy, 100 breast gold medalist Lydia Jacoby, women’s 100 fly fourth-place finisher Torri Huske and men’s 100 free gold medalist Caeleb Dressel. The Americans will be one of four teams in the middle of the pool in serious contention for the medals. The top seed, Great Britain, will return backstroker Kathleen Dawson, world-record holding breaststroker Adam Peaty and butterflyer James Guy from the prelims group that qualified first, while 100 free Olympic finalist Anna Hopkin will take the spot of Freya Anderson from prelims.
Third-seeded China will utlize the same group that set the world record in the event at 3:38.41, backstroker Xu Jiayu, breaststroker Yan Zibei, butterflyer Zhang Yufei and freestyler Yang Junxuan. The top performer for China at these Games has been Zhang, the silver medalist in the 100 fly and gold medalist in the 200 fly, while both swam on China’s gold-medal winning 800 free relay team.
Australia, seeded fourth, will lead off with backstroker Kaylee McKeown, who will compete in her second final of the night after the 200 back, and she will be followed by men’s 200 breast gold medalist Zac Stubblety-Cook. Women’s 100 free gold medalist Emma McKeon will anchor for the Australians, which is a slight surprise as that means men’s 100 free silver medalist Kyle Chalmers will not be on the relay. Instead, Matthew Temple will swim butterfly for Australia after he has the individual 100 fly final earlier in the session.
Italy will swim with Thomas Ceccon, Nicolo Martinenghi, Elena di Liddo and Federica Pellegrini, while the Netherlands will go with Kira Toussaint, Arno Kamminga, Nyls Korstanje and Femke Heemskerk.
Check out the full lineups here.
