After ending with a Bronze finally yr’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, and the 2021 Olympic Video games, the new matter at Canadian Olympic Trials final week was if the Canadian ladies are poised to return the rostrum within the 400 medley relay in Paris this summer time. Qualifying first out of the morning in 2023 with a time of three:55.93, Canada substituted two swimmers into the night relay: Kylie Masse taking up for Ingrid Wilm on backstroke and Summer season McIntosh taking up for Mary-Sophie Harvey on freestyle to complete with a time of three:54.12, simply 1.5 seconds off their Olympic Bronze medal end.
Now that Olympic Trials are over and the Canadian staff is ready, we will check out how the staff is starting to stack up in comparison with latest years. (Trace: issues are trying good within the Nice White North). With none adjustment for relay takeovers and taking all prime finishers’ instances at face worth, the Canadian ladies’s 2024 Paris relay appears to be like like this:
Within the 2023 World Championship relay, Masse led off in 58.74, however regardless of a number of up and down years since Tokyo, she took off almost a second from that point on the latest Canadian Olympic Trials, simply lacking her greatest time of 57.70. Sophie Angus was simply off her private greatest at Trials, although her greatest time comes from the World Championships in Doha in February of this yr. This coupled with a relay begin are prone to see her again in type to duplicate or enhance on her 2023 break up of 1:06.21.
Reigning 100 fly Olympic champion Maggie MacNeil continues to be trying to get again to underneath that 56-second mark, her relay break up from Tokyo being a blazing 55.27. Coming back from the Tokyo Bronze medal relay as nicely is Penny Oleksiak who closed their Olympic relay in 52.26. Nevertheless, with the meteoric rise of younger star Summer season McIntosh who anchored the medley relay in 2023 in the identical evening she gained the 400 IM by over 4 seconds, the coaches of the Canadian Nationwide Crew might have a choice to make about who secures that ultimate anchor leg particularly when her greatest time of 53.90 would have put her within the combine at Trials.
With all of the returning expertise for the Canadian ladies, they’re nicely poised to compete for one more medal this summer time in Paris. With the 100 breast and free titles solely being separated by 0.04 and 0.05 seconds respectively at their Trials final week, Canada has sufficient depth to really feel assured of their relay alternates talents to place them nicely within the morning relay.
Their struggle for a medal doesn’t come with out intense competitors. They are going to probably face the US, Australia, China, and Sweden in a repeat of each the 2021 Olympic and 2023 World Championship prime 5 contenders. With the US and Australia nonetheless awaiting their trials, there may be a while till we will begin stacking up the precise splits, however it’s protected to say that each groups are massive favorites to medal.
Australia’s breaststroke leg is their weak spot, (very similar to Canada), whereas the US can have some selections to make on the again legs after Trials with Torri Huske, Kate Douglass, and Gretchen Walsh all primed to have nice swims within the 100 free and Huske / Walsh additionally competing within the 100 fly.
Sweden has named all 4 ladies from their 2023 World Championship relay staff again to their Olympic roster: Michelle Coleman, Sophie Hansson, Louise Hansson, and Sarah Sjoestroem. Including up their greatest instances would put them at 3:53.24 earlier than relay takeovers, and if there may be one factor everybody is aware of, it’s that Sjoestroem can by no means be counted out to shut a relay.
China shall be returning three out of 4 swimmers from its 4th-place 2023 World Championship relay, Letian Wan on backstroke, Qianting Tang on breaststroke, and Yufei Zhang on butterfly. Notably, Qianting Tang notched a 1:04.39 at Chinese language Nationals in April, shaving almost 2 seconds of her relay-start time of 1:06.13 from the relay final summer time at World Championships. This coupled with their prime 100 freestyle qualifier, Junxuan Yang, throwing down a 52.68 to win Chinese language Nationals, their relay is shaping as much as be a robust medal contender as nicely with a flat add-up time of 3:52.21.
Nice Britain completed ninth finally yr’s World Championships, lacking out on the ultimate altogether by about four-tenths of a second. This week, although, an enormous efficiency that would shore up one in all that relay’s weakest legs thrust them again into the dialog.
21-year-old Angharad Evans is destined play a crucial function of their relay this summer time along with her latest 1:05.54 within the 100 breast on the AP Race Worldwide over the weekend. If repeated in Paris, that would make a two-second impression on their end result from final yr’s World Championships. That’s two of most likely about 5 seconds they should discover to make the rostrum.
However with a glut of sprinters, a greatest time on the 2024 World Championships from backstroker Lauren Cox (59.60), and butterflyer Keanna MacInnes forward of schedule this season within the 100 fly (58.32 at Trials), they’re a significantly better relay this yr. They would wish somebody apart from Evans to drag a rabbit out of the hat to land on the rostrum, however they’re one massive leg nearer to that consequence.
Extra Relay Outlook
The Canadian ladies are additionally poised to contend for medals in each freestyle relays. On the final Olympic Video games they completed 2nd within the 4 x 100 free and 4th within the 4 x 200 free relay, and they are going to be returning many key names from these groups together with Summer season McIntosh, Maggie MacNeil, Penny Oleksiak, and Mary-Sophie Harvey.
It is going to be a fierce competitors all all through the Video games and Paris and particularly on the final evening of competitors when the 4 x 100 Medley relays go off for each women and men, however the rising depth of Canadian Swimming in addition to the multitude of returning expertise bodes nicely because the staff begins to arrange themselves for a visit throughout the pond to a rustic they’re traditionally fairly conversant in.
Many international locations shall be vying for a spot atop the rostrum in Paris and till the time comes, we is not going to know for certain how issues will shake out. Till then, we are going to proceed to regulate the continuing Trials occurring all over the world as we put together for a Summer season Video games that guarantees a close to return to normalcy for spectators and athletes.
