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>> Michael Andrew
Men’s Medley Relay Lineup Was Right One — And Gold Medal Proved It BY DAVID RIEDER
T
he U.S. swim team coaching staff had made some relay decisions that could best be described as questionable, decisions that resulted in the two worst relay finishes for the United States in Olympic swimming history. Confidence in those decisions was shaken, significantly so. Prior to the meet’s final day, yet another agonizing relay decision hovered over the American men’s staff, with only an alltime undefeated record at the Olympics on the line. They made the call, they submitted the lineup, and they walked out to the blocks behind lane one, where the Americans would swim after a rough effort in the prelims more than 36 hours earlier. This time, the difficult decision paid off — Michael Andrew, the scrutinized 22-year-old at the end of an Olympics debut where his performances were not up to the par he set for himself at last month’s Olympics Trials, put up exactly the split he needed on the breaststroke leg.
For the purposes of relay selection, the coaching staff mainly involves head U.S. men’s coach Dave Durden, women’s coach Greg Meehan and National Team managing director Lindsay Mintenko. The other eight members of the official Olympic team coaching staff contribute their input, but it’s that trio who make the final calls. Around the halfway point of the Olympics, the staff made the decision to place Zach Apple in a high-stakes spot in the 800 free relay — when the 200 free is not Apple’s best event and Apple had already swum the 100 free semifinals earlier in the session — and Apple faded down the stretch. The Americans could not make up the difference and ended up fourth. Then, the staff bucked conventional wisdom and even the straight numbers when putting together the lineup for the mixed 400 medley relay. That team ended up fifth, more than one-and-a-half seconds away from the podium.
Less than two minutes later, the American men were gold medalists again — with a world record to boot.
After that mixed relay debacle on day seven, only the singlegender medley relays remained on the Tokyo schedule, and those are typically straightforward strategically. Cannot mess that up, right? In this case, maybe.
Credit where credit is due. The U.S. staff got this one right.
By all accounts, it was not a perfect week for Andrew. He
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