Paris Olympics, Day 5 Finals Heat Sheet: Leon Marchand Chases Double Gold on Busiest Night of Racing
The Wednesday evening finals session will be the busiest of the Olympic swimming competition. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. CEST (2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT in the United States), there will be finals in the women’s 100 freestyle, men’s 200 butterfly, women’s 1500 freestyle, men’s 200 breaststroke and men’s 100 freestyle.
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Siobhan Haughey holds down lane four in the 100 free final with Australians Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack swimming on either side of her. World-record holder Sarah Sjostrom is in lane seven with world champion Marrit Steenbergen in lane two and Torri Huske, 2022 world bronze medallist, in lane one.
The 200 fly should come down to world-record holder and defending champion Kristof Milak and 2023 world titlist Leon Marchand, with last year’s Worlds runnerup, Poland’s Krzysztof Chmielewski two lanes away.
Regan Smith and Zhang Yufei swim in lane four in their respective 200 fly semis, and then Katie Ledecky goes for her second consecutive Olympic title in the 1500 free. Ledecky has never lost this race internationally, although she will be next to Simona Quadarella, who won world titles in Ledecky’s absence in 2019 and again this year.
The 200 back sees Lukas Martens and Roman Mityukov in lane four in their respective heats, with 2023 world champion Hubert Kos in the first heat and Ryan Murphy in the second. Tes Schouten leads the way in the first semi of the women’s 200 breast while Tatjana Smith and Kate Douglass are both in heat two.
Two more finals conclude the night, first with Marchand trying to beat out Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook for Olympic gold in the men’s 200 breast. The medals could come from anywhere, with the fourth through eighth-place swimmers separated by just four tenths.
Finally, world-record holder Pan Zhanle goes for Olympic gold in the 100 free as the top seed racing against 2016 winner Kyle Chalmers (lane five) and the man whose record he took down, Romania’s David Popovici (lane two).