By Jared Anderson on SwimSwam
2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
- SwimSwam Event Previews
- Entry Lists
- Live Results
- Day 1 Finals Heat Sheet
Want to catch up on all of the Olympic swimming action in record time? We’ve got you covered, with our daily “Tokyo Rapid-Fire” featuring the day’s top swimming headlines.
Hafnaoui Stuns For Tunisian Gold
18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui has been a fast riser in the sport lately, but no one was predicting him as a gold medal contender in the 400 free. (Seriously, a total of zero people picked Hafnaoui to win a medal of any kind in the 400 free out of 900+ Pick ‘Em entries). The Tunisian had to drop a half-second from his lifetime-best just to scrape into the final in 8th place. He was 0.14 seconds from missing the final entirely, but shocked the field from lane 8 for gold in tonight’s most memorable finish.
Australia Smashes World Record
One major upset and one heavy favorite delivering. Australia’s 4×100 free relay obliterated the field and won gold, breaking their own world record in the process. A 3:29.69 took four tenths of a second off the world record for the first sub-3:30 swim in history. Emma McKeon swam the 100 fly semifinal earlier in the session but came back to split 51.35 on this relay, joining Bronte Campbell (53.01 leadoff), Meg Harris (53.09), and Cate Campbell (52.24) for the win.
U.S. Men Go 1-2 In 400 IM
In a tone-setter for the U.S. men, former University of Georgia teammates Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland went 1-2 in the 400 IM to sweep the top two medal spots. This is the first Olympics since 2000 without both Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in the mix, but Kalisz and Litherland stepped up for the next generation in one of Phelps’ and Lochte’s signature events.
Overall, a slower session
While Australia’s women were the notable exception in that relay, tonight’s session was markedly slower in several events than previous Olympic finals, perhaps due to the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic on training and competition.
In the men’s 400 IM, Kalisz’s winning time would have been just third at the 2016 Olympics and the 2019 World Championships. Hafnaoui’s time would have won bronze in 2016 and wouldn’t have even medaled at 2019 Worlds. In the women’s 400 IM, Yui Ohashi‘s winning time (4:32.08) would have been just bronze in both 2016 and 2019.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Tokyo Rapid-Fire: Day 1 Swimming Headlines
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