Tokyo Olympics 2021: Swimming’s newest event one of Tokyo’s great moments

The craziest pool debut in history wasn’t made by a swimmer, it was the debut of an event that captured the world’s attention after living up to its madcap billing.

THE mixed 4x100m medley relay was the funnest swimming event of the Tokyo Olympics. Blokes chasing down the girls, the girls chasing down the blokes, lead changes at every turn — the guy in charge of the PA system should have played some Benny Hill music.

It was a hoot from the moment the team sheets came out of the overheating printer on another baking day at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, confirming Australia’s Emma McKeon would have to hold off American beast Caeleb Dressel like an eel trying to outpace the biggest and most dangerous crocodile in the swamp.

McKeon’s individual 100m freestyle-winning time had been 51.96sec. Dressel won the men’s in 47.02sec. The difference? The proverbial mile. Selections are half the fun in the funnest swimming event at the Olympics, and when Australia chose its backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle line-up, it went female, male, male, female: Kaylee McKeown, Zac Stubblety-Cook, Matthew Temple, McKeon.

Kaylee McKeown, Matthew Temple and Izaac Stubblety-Cook cheer on Emma McKeon. Picture: Alex Coppel.

The contentious decision was to omit men’s 100m freestyle silver medallist Kyle Chalmers from the anchor leg against Dressel. His inclusion would have pushed McKeon into the butterfly and forced Temple out altogether, but Australia instead plotted for a commanding position through the men’s second and third legs before McKeon tried to hold off the fastest swimmer on Earth … and whoever else popped up.

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It was the Poms who popped up, taking gold. Great Britain went down the same path as Australia, opting for female (Kathleen Dawson), male (Adam Peaty), male (James Guy) and female anchor (Anna Hopkin). It worked a treat thanks to Olympic champion Peaty’s breaststroke dominance. Peaty’s split of 56.78 swamped Stubblety-Cook’s 58.82sec, giving Hopkin enough of a lead to retain. China came second and Australia was third after McKeon flashed home in a blistering 51.73sec. Dressel clocked 46.99sec, but he started so far back the Americans had to settle for fifth.

If Dressel chasing McKeon for the podium wasn’t a crocodile chasing an eel, it looked like a lion trying to catch and maul a hare. The race was on Olympic debut and lived up to its madcap billing. A crowd would have lapped it up.

“It is pretty unreal, to be honest,” McKeon said. “It’s been exciting to walk away with bronze. A mixed relay, you don’t know where you’re sitting. I knew the girl on the other side of me from The Netherlands, she was going last in freestyle so I knew I could kind of go off her rather than focusing on Dressel coming up behind me.”

Temple was stoked to become an Olympic medallist. “Diving in, not knowing where you sit within the field because of the male/female, you swim your own race, you touch the wall, hopefully the next person can swim over the top,” he said. “To come third and bring home a medal – there’s nothing better than a relay medal for Australia.”

Aussies win bronze in mixed relay

- Julian Linden

Australia has won a bronze medal in the inaugural mixed medley relay at the Tokyo Olympics to equal the haul of 18 medals won at the Sydney 2000 Games.

The combination of Kaylee McKeown (backstroke), Zac Stubblety-Cook (breaststroke), Matt Temple (butterfly) and Emma McKeon (freestyle) finished third after gambling on leaving out Kyle Chalmers.

The gold medal went to Britain - in a world record time - with China winning the silver.

The United States finished fifth and leads Australia by just one gold - eight to seven - heading into Sunday’s last day of swimming competition.

The most gold medals Australia has won in swimming at an Olympics is eight, in 1956. The most medals in total is 20, at Beijing in 2008.

The 18 won so far in Tokyo is the equal second highest total.

McKeon collected her fifth medal in total to equal the Australian record for most medals won at a single Olympics and a career.

The Aussie team celebrate their bronze medal win. Picture: Alex Coppel.

All the Aussie were thrilled with the result.

“It is pretty unreal to be honest. It has been exciting to walk away with bronze,” McKeown told Channel 7.

“It was great to have that class of racing and great to get up and step up this morning and great to see Kaylee and Emma come from racing this morning,” Stubblety-Cook said.

“Yes, so happy. Finished the 100 fly, knew I had another job to do so to step up, and get the job done, I’m over the moon,” said Temple.

McKeon, who swam the anchor leg just minutes after completing the 50m freestyle semi-final, said the scheduling didn’t matter.

“We knew it was going to be quick. I think on the timeline it was like a six-minute break which sounds pretty quick but we train for that and we do a lot more than that in training,” she said.

“So I knew I could handle it and the fact that it’s a relay that gets you up anyway.

A mixed relay you don’t know where you’re sitting. I knew the girl on the other side of me from the Netherlands, she was going last in freestyle so I knew I could kind of go off her rather than focussing on Dressel coming up behind me.”

Kyle Chalmers was left out of the relay team.

Earlier, Kyle Chalmers was been left out of the Australian lineup for the inaugural mixed medley relay final.

Beaten by just 0.06 by Dressel in the individual 100m freestyle final, Chalmers was expected to be given the envious role of taking on the fastest man in water on the anchor leg.

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Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Swimming’s newest event one of Tokyo’s great moments