The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 27 and 28 July 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.[1] It was the event's twenty-sixth consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1908.
The medals for competition were presented by the U.S.' IOC Member David Haggerty, and the gifts were presented by Qatar's FINA Bureau Member Khaleel Al Jabir.
After achieving a quinella in the individual 200 m freestyle, Great Britain duly upgraded their silver from Rio five years earlier with an Olympic title, their first in the event since 1908. Led off by the 200 freestyle Olympic champion Tom Dean in a time of 1:45.72 - 1.5 seconds off his winning time - Great Britain surprisingly fell almost a second behind the pace of the Americans. However, the British team's cumulative depth eventually told as the 2015 World champion at the distance, James Guy (1:44.40), moved the team into the lead before youngster Matthew Richards (1:45.01) extended the margin over the field from 0.13 to 1.45 seconds. Duncan Scott, the silver medallist behind Dean, split a sterling 1:43.45 - the quickest in the field - to anchor the British home to an Olympic record of 6:58.58, just 0.03 seconds outside the world record.
Meanwhile, ROC's Martin Malyutin (1:45.69), Ivan Giryov (1:45.63) and 100 m backstroke champion Evgeny Rylov (1:45.26) handed over the anchor leg duties to Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:45.23), who held off Australia's Thomas Neill by 0.03 seconds to secure ROC the silver in 7:01.81. With Australia in fourth heading into the final changeover after swims from Alexander Graham (1:46.00), Kyle Chalmers (1:45.35) and Zac Incerti (1:45.75), Neill blasted a 1:44.74 split to deliver the quartet a bronze medal in 7:01.84.
In a stunning upset, the U.S. failed to win a relay medal (when entering an event) for the first time in Olympic swimming history.[2] Kieran Smith (1:44.81) had the U.S. in the lead before handing over to Drew Kibler (1:45.51), who was overtaken by Great Britain's Guy to touch in second. Coming off the 100 free semi-finals earlier in the session, third swimmer Zach Apple (1:47.31) faded over the closing stages of his leg to fall behind the Italians and Australians. Though the U.S.' anchor Townley Haas (1:44.87) surpassed Italy's Stefano Di Cola (1:46.26), he could not close the gap on the Australians as the U.S. settled for fourth in 7:02.43. In podium contention at the final changeover, Italy's foursome of Stefano Ballo (1:45.77), Matteo Ciampi (1:45.88), Filippo Megli (1:45.33) and Di Cola missed the medals to take fifth in 7:03.24.
Led off by Antonio Djakovic, who clocked a Swiss record of 1:45.77, Switzerland's quartet also touched in a national record of 7:06.12 to claim sixth. Germany (7:06.51) and Brazil (7:08.22), led off by the bronze medallist in the individual 200 m Fernando Scheffer, rounded out the championship field.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
No new Olympic or World records were set during the competition.
Great Britain set a European record in the final, the third-fastest time ever (behind only the Olympic and World records) and the fastest time ever swum in a textile suit. Israel and Switzerland (twice) set national records.
The top 12 teams in this event at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships qualified for the Olympics. An additional 4 teams will qualify through having the fastest times at approved qualifying events during the qualifying period (1 March 2019 to 30 May 2020).[6]
The competition consists of two rounds: heats and a final. The relay teams with the best 8 times in the heats advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[7]
All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)[1]
The relay teams with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.[8]
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