Competitors 73 from 16 nations Date 9 August 2016 Teams 16 | Winning time 7:00.66 Venue Olympic Aquatics Stadium | |
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Dates 9 August 2016 (heats & final) Location Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||
The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
Contents
After winning the 200 m butterfly title less than an hour earlier, the double gold rush continued for U.S. swimming icon Michael Phelps, as he helped his teammates Conor Dwyer, youngster Townley Haas, and eleven-time medalist Ryan Lochte solidify their historic seventeenth Olympic title in this event. The American foursome of Dwyer (1:45.23), Haas (1:44.14), Lochte (1:46.03), and Phelps (1:45.26) dominated the race from the start to put together a rapid first-place finish in 7:00.26. As the Americans defended their Olympic title, Phelps also earned a twenty-first gold to raise his overall medal tally to twenty-five.
Great Britain's Stephen Milne (1:46.97), Duncan Scott (1:45.05), and Daniel Wallace (1:46.26) struggled to chase against the rest of the teams throughout the race, until anchor James Guy launched a late attack on the home stretch with a 1:44.85 split to deliver the British quartet a historic relay silver medal in 7:03.13. Meanwhile, Japan's Kosuke Hagino (1:45.34), along with his teammates Naito Ehara (1:46.11) and Yuki Kobori (1:45.71) held the runner-up spot for three-fourths of the race, but their anchor and four-time Olympian Takeshi Matsuda (1:46.34) could not hunt down Guy towards a close finish, leaving the Japanese with a bronze in a final time of 7:03.50.
Outside the club, Australia's Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:45.81), David McKeon (1:45.63), Daniel Smith (1:47.37), and Mack Horton (1:45.37) missed the podium by nearly three tenths of a second behind Japan, finishing with a fourth-place time in 7:04.18. The Russian team of Danila Izotov (1:46.72), Aleksandr Krasnykh (1:45.67), Nikita Lobintsev (1:46.31), and Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:47.00) picked up the fifth spot in 7:05.70, with Germany (7:07.28), the Netherlands (7:09.10), and Belgium (7:11.64) following them by a couple of seconds to round out the top eight.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
Heats
A total of sixteen countries have qualified to participate. The best eight from two heats advanced to the final.