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World Championships: Dressel (USA), O’Callaghan (AUS) to Lead Off Favored 400 Free Relay Squads
The first evening of swimming competition at the FINA World Championships will end with the 400 freestyle relays, first the men’s event and then the women’s. The teams that captured Olympic gold medals will enter as the top seeds in both events, and the top 100 freestylers in the world will swim the leadoff legs.
For the United States, Caeleb Dressel will lead off ahead of teammates Ryan Held, Justin Ress and Brooks Curry, with all three of those swimmers returning after competing in prelims. Dressel is the two-time world champion in the 100 free and the Olympic gold medalist in the event, while Held is the only other swimmer among the quartet who has ever raced in a major international relay final. None of the swimmers who joined Dressel to win Olympic gold for the U.S. last year will return.
Notably, Drew Kibler tied for fourth in the 100 free at the U.S. International Team Trials last month, but he was left off both prelims and finals squads. USA Swimming said in a statement, “Due to COVID protocol travel delays, a decision was made to pull Drew Kibler from the relay to focus on his individual and future events. USA Swimming continues to prioritize the health and safety of our athletes and staff by following FINA guidelines and enforcing mask rules and social distancing.”
Also in the men’s race, 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers will anchor for Australia, while 200 free Olympic champion Tom Dean will swim the last leg for Great Britain. Butterfly star Kristof Milak will anchor for Hungary, and rising star Josh Liendo is set to handle leadoff duties for Canada. The full start list for the men’s race is available here.
On the women’s side, the Australians will only bring back Meg Harris from their Olympic-gold-medal-winning squad in 2021, with sprint stars Emma McKeon, Cate Campbell and Bronte Campbell all absent, but they will add the two fastest 100 freestylers in the world so far this year. Mollie O’Callaghan will lead off, while Shayna Jack anchors, with Madison Wilson swimming second and Harris third.
The United States is seeded second with Torri Huske, Erika Brown, Kate Douglass and Claire Curzan racing in the finals, with Brown the only returning swimmer from the bronze-medal-winning group in Tokyo. Canada, the bronze medalists from Tokyo, will be seeded third in the finals with Kayla Sanchez, Taylor Ruck, Maggie Mac Neil and Penny Oleksiak. China could also get into the mix with Zhang Yufei leading off and Yang Junxuan swimming second. Check out the full women’s start list here.
