800m Free Relay on Tuesday

There's a video on swimswam.com that previews the race:



In this video Gold Medal Mel Stewart predicts a US victory over France.

The big question for the U.S. is who will swim in the 800m free relay and in what order?  Obviously Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will swim in the evening.  The rest is up for grabs.  Ricky Berens, who qualified third in the 200 free at Trials, may swim in the evening only, leaving the fourth spot to the guy who swims the fastest in prelims.  The prelim swimmers are likely to be Conor Dwyer, Matt McLean and Charlie Houchin and possibly Peter Vanderkaay as well based on his bronze medal in the 400m free.  Those four should be fast enough to put the USA in the finals in a good lane.

What will be the order for the finals?  I think the coaches will stick with the historical order of Phelps first and Lochte last with Berens and the fourth swimmer swimming second and third.  This likely will pit Lochte against Agnel again.  Will the third time be a charm?

Edit:  Oops I forgot about Davis Tarwater!  Don't know how I could do that, especially since I was cheering for him to make the team at Trials.  The US team of Houchin, McLean, Tarwater and Dwyer (in that order) did so well in prelims and placed the US in lane 4 for the finals.  Dwyer had the best time, which should put him on tonight's relay with Lochte, Phelps and Berens.  Here are the prelim times:

I got Houchin 1:48.22, McLean 1:46.68, Tarwater 1:46.33, Dwyer 1:45.52. RT @joelwilson92 @yahooforde What were the American splits?
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) July 31, 2012

Edit again to add this link:
http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/lochtes-dark-night-of-the-twitter-soul/?smid=pl-share

Ryan Places 4th in the 200m Free - 800m Free Relay on Tuesday

I'm not going to lie, Ryan's fourth place finish in the 200m free really hurt.  Especially after he won gold in Shanghai with a much faster swim.  Ryan's time in London was 1:45.04, which not a personal best (that was 1:44.44 in Shanghai).  It was also not fast enough to beat Yannick Agnel, who finished first in a time of 1:43.14, or Park Tae-Hwan and Sun Yang, who tied for the silver in a time of 1:44.93.  


Agnel really seems to have Ryan's number, having defeated him twice in a row. 


Ryan was interviewed after the 200 free and seemed to have the right attitude.  He was asked if he was adversely affected by the defeat in the 400 free relay and the 4th place finish in the 200 free.  He said:

"Whatever happened last night, happened last night. You have to get over it and move on," he said. "Whatever happened tonight ... I have a couple of more races left. Just have to forget about it and move on."

I watched the race on NBC tonight and Ryan's finish was poor.  He glided to the end, like he's done in every race in the Olympics at at Olympic trials.  Sometimes when he glides it is because he is quite a ways ahead and seems to be conserving energy.  But when the race is close and he's fighting to get his hand on the wall first or second, the glide makes no sense.   


Hopefully he will be able to regroup and gain confidence in the 800 free relay.  


In other news, it was a very good night for USA Swimming with Matt Grevers and Nick Thoman winning gold & silver in the men's 100m back, Missy Franklin winning gold in the women's 100m back and Rebecca Soni winning silver in the 100m breast.  The only USA swimmer missing from the medal stand was Ryan, a situation he is likely to rectify on Tuesday.

NBC Nightly News on Ryan Lochte

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Ryan in 200m Free Finals on Monday

This is going to be a tough race, probably the most difficult race on Ryan's schedule.  Here is the field from London2012.com:

01	RENWICK Robbie	1:46.65	+
02	LOCHTE Ryan	1:46.31	+
03	PARK Taehwan	1:46.02	+
04	SUN Yang	1:45.61	+
05	AGNEL Yannick	1:45.84	+
06	BIEDERMANN Paul	1:46.10	+
07	IZOTOV Danila	1:46.65	+
08	FRASER-HOLMES Thomas	1:46.80

Many of these same swimmers were in the 200 free finals in Shanghai last year.  Park, Agnel, Biedermann and Izotov were all there.  Ryan beat all of them along with Michael Phelps.  Sun did not swim the 200 free in Shanghai but his best event is the 1500 free.  He is supremely talented, but hopefully the 200 is too short of a distance for him.  Agnel worries me after what he did to Ryan tonight in the relay, but Ryan is a much better 200 swimmer than 100 so hopefully he will prevail.  I do not want to overlook Park and Biedermann, who are also equally capable of winning.

No matter the outcome, it is going to be a great race.  I'm just hoping Ryan will come out on top.
+

US Wins Silver in 400m Free Relay - Lochte Chased Down by Agnel of France

Ryan didn't swim the smartest race (according to Gregg Troy in the article below) but he sure gave it his all.  How many other 400 IM swimmers are also sprinters?  Lots of interesting quotes in this article by Pat Forde of yahoo.com:  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--usa-s-risky-men-s-freestyle-relay-plan-backfires-in-an-ironic-twist-.html

Lochte was too amped for his anchor leg, taking it out too quickly. An explosive underwater start sapped his energy. His turnover was too fast. Not a natural sprinter, he immediately engaged in a dead sprint.
"I overswam the first 50," he said, "which hurt me in the last 50."
Said Troy: "I knew on the first 25 he was in trouble."

It was a good decision to put Lochte on the relay.  It was a mistake to leave him off it in the finals in Shanghai.  Of all the options available, he gave the US the best chance at gold.  He didn't lose the race, Agnel won it.  


Agnel's performance makes me very nervous for the 200m free final tomorrow, but that's a subject for a separate post.

Here's another good article about the race by Casey Barrett.  Everyone should read www.capandgoggles.com.  It's a fantastic swimming blog.
http://capandgoggles.com/2012/07/29/a-dish-served-cold/


Here are some photos from the 400 free relay and medal ceremony:

This Photo Says It All

More later after the NBC broadcast....

Ryan Lochte in Two Events Tonight - 200m Free Semi-Finals and 400m Free Relay Finals - Anchor Leg

Ryan Lochte before the 200m free prelims this morning

Ryan qualified second in the 200m free in this morning's prelims.  His time was 1:46.45.  He swam in the same heat as China's Sun Yang who qualified first with a time of 1:46.24.  The 200 free is going to be a complete dogfight and hopefully Ryan will come through like he did in Shanghai last year.

Now the big news:  Ryan is swimming in the 400m free relay and he has the anchor leg.  I had given up on him being in the relay when he didn't swim in the prelims this morning.  It's such a nice surprise to find out that he will be there.  Best of luck to the USA men's team...Nathan Adrian, Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones and Ryan Lochte.  They are going to need it against Australia and France!!