The 2024 Paris Olympics will feature many can’t miss races that will be talked about for generations.
Swimming will take place at the La Defense Arena and will be one of the top sports of the entire Paris 2024 Olympics. With the Games-time swimming schedule being extended to nine days, here is one final from each day that will be a can’t miss race that could end up being talked about by swimming fans for years to come.
July 27 - Women’s 400m Freestyle
The Players:
Last year at the World Aquatics Championships, this race was tabbed as ‘the race of the century’ as the impending matchup between defending Olympic champ Ariarne Titmus of Australia, world record holder Summer McIntosh of Canada, and the greatest female swimmer of all-time in Katie Ledecky of the United States was one that could not be missed.
Titmus dominated that race, taking the world record from McIntosh in the process, and this year, she leads the world rankings by nearly three full seconds over Ledecky and New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather.
It will take the swim of a lifetime from either Ledecky or McIntosh to take down the Australian, but there is a lot of star power in this race. Titmus (200m freestyle), Ledecky (800m, 1500m freestyle), and McIntosh (400m IM, 200m butterfly) are heavily favored to win individual gold medals elsewhere in the swimming program.
July 28 - Men’s 400m IM
The Players:
This race has been circled on the calendar by the global swimming fandom since France’s Leon Marchand won his first World title in the 400m IM in 2022. Marchand, age 22, is the heavy favorite in this race after breaking Michael Phelps’s world record last year and could challenge the once unthinkable 4:00 barrier. Marchand is favored to win four gold medals in the French capital, and could become a household name by winning his first Olympic gold medal on Sunday night at the La Defense Arena.
Marchand’s profile has been building and building and the French public are expected to show out loud and proud on Sunday night.
If there is a challenger to Marchand, look no further than the American duo of Carson Foster and defending gold medalist Chase Kalisz. Foster won silver at the World Aquatics Championships in 2022 and 2023 behind Marchand, and can swim stroke for stroke with him for 200 meters. The breaststroke is his kryptonite but he has made tremendous improvements in that front the last few years.
Kalisz is looking for his third straight podium trip in this event as he has been a mainstay in 400m IM finals since 2013.
July 29 - Men’s 200m freestyle
The Players:
Since 2020, there have been four different champions in the men’s 200m freestyle at the Olympics and World Championships. The defending champion, Tom Dean, didn’t even make it out of his Trials in Great Britain, as the Brits will be instead represented by 2023 World champ Matthew Richards and defending Olympic silver medallist Duncan Scott.
Although Richards and Scott have reached the podium in this event at major international meet, the main favorite is Romania’s David Popovici. The world record has been out of reach since Paul Biedermann swam 1:42.00 back in 2009, and the only one to have gotten close since was Popovici, who swam 1:42.97 to win the Europeans in 2022 at age 17. Now 19, Popovici has hit his stride this year, swimming 1:43.13 to win the European title again this year, leading by a full second over Germany’s Lukas Martens (1:44.14).
Although Martens is the favorite for the 400m, Popovici has the perfect mix of speed and endurance to win this event, which would be his first career Olympic medal.
Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo, who won the World title earlier this year, also possesses the speed and endurance to win this event on the biggest stage as he aims to make his first Olympic podium.
July 30 - Women’s 100m backstroke
The Players:
Much has been written about this event already, but the fact of the matter is - the four fastest performers all-time are on the entry lists, and three of the four have gone lifetime best times in the last 12 months. The world record has been traded back and forth between Kaylee McKeown of Australia and Regan Smith of the United States since 2019, and it could take a world record to win gold on Monday night as Smith’s 57.13 from earlier this summer is up for grabs.
If there is a spoiler, it could be Canada’s Kylie Masse, who won silver in Tokyo and bronze in Rio. Masse has won two World titles in her career, and has always showed up in big moments. Katharine Berkoff of the United States is another potential spoiler here, having pushed Smith during her world record swim as she is in her first Olympics as a second generation Olympian - her father David won 100m backstroke silver in 1988 and bronze in 1992.
July 31 - Men’s 100m freestyle
The Players:
The blue ribbon event, much like the men’s 200m freestyle, has seen four different champions since 2020. Defending champion Caeleb Dressel is not racing this, leaving the door open for Americans Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano in their Olympic debuts.
2022 world champion David Popovici is the co-favorite based on his 46.88 at this year’s European Championships, getting oh-so-close to Pan Zhanle’s world record of 46.80 set earlier this year. Pan, the other co-favorite, won this year’s World title after finishing fourth at the 2022 and 2023 World Aquatics Championships. He and Popovici have each broken 47 seconds a total of three times, and whoever puts together the right race on the day of July 31 will be the gold medalist.
If either Pan or Popovici can get beat, look no further than 2023 World champ Kyle Chalmers and last year’s 100m butterfly World champ Maxime Grousset. They are two of the best racers in the world, and could spoil the party if given any opportunity.
August 1 - Women’s 200m breaststroke
The Players:
Tatjana Schoenmaker’s gold medal from Tokyo was one of the defining moments of the 2021 Olympics. She has since married and is one of the co-favourites to win the gold medal again this year as Tatjana Smith, leading the world rankings at 2:19.01 and was the World champ back in 2023.
Her biggest challenger is American Kate Douglass, who swam 2:19.30 back in January. Douglass has yet to win a major international long course title in this event, winning gold at the World Short Course Championships in 2022, but she dropped the 100m freestyle from her program to go all-in on this event, which could be what propels her to the top.
Tes Schouten of the Netherlands beat Douglass head to head in February at the World Championships, and has been building and building for this moment. She sits third in the world rankings (2:19.81) this year and could spoil the party.
August 2 - Men’s 50m freestyle
The Players:
The splash and dash will be unpredictable and whoever can master the race with the least amount of mistakes will be the winner. Defending Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel and last year’s World champion Cameron McEvoy are the two main favorites as both have resurrected their careers after extensive breaks in recent seasons.
McEvoy is still striving for his first individual Olympic gold medal, something that eluded him in 2016 when he entered Rio as the 100m freestyle favourite. Dressel won three individual golds in Tokyo, something only 12 other swimmers have done in history. He’s been open about his mental health in recent years, and appears to be in a good place as he enters his third Olympics.
2022 World champ Ben Proud is also a gold medal favourite as he was fourth in Rio and fifth in Tokyo and will be looking to make his first Olympic podium at age 29.
2012 Olympic champ Florent Manaudou, who won silver in Rio and in Tokyo, is in his fourth Olympics in his home nation. Manaudou served as the flag bearer in Friday’s Opening Ceremony and will have the home nation cheering him on.
August 3 - Women’s 200m IM
The Players:
Similarly to the women’s 400m freestyle, the 200m IM features a fair number of swimmers that could be individual gold medalists already by the time we reach Saturday night at the La Defense Arena. Kaylee McKeown, Kate Douglass, and Summer McIntosh are some of the best overall swimmers in the entire world and will certainly give the fans an exciting race.
Douglass won the last two World titles, but did not see McKeown nor McIntosh in either race. McKeown was disqualified in the semis in last year’s Worlds and could be out for revenge this year.
McIntosh didn’t race the 200m IM last year due to a conflict with the 400m free, but she won’t have that this year as she could be going for the IM double. The last seven 400m IM gold medalists went on to win the 200m IM as well and McIntosh is the heavy, heavy favorite to win the 400m IM.
August 4 - Men’s 4x100m Medley
The Players:
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United States
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China
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Australia
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Great Britain
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France
The United States has never lost the men’s 4x100m medley relay at the Olympic Games. Although the team has taken a few silver medals at the World Championships, the nation always shows out in the men’s medley relay. The team has the top ranked backstroker in the world this year in Ryan Murphy and a World champion (Nic Fink) and a world record holder (Caeleb Dressel) on the next two legs, as well as the option to use Jack Alexy or Chris Guilliano on the anchor.
China may be the biggest challenger with last year’s World swimmer of the year Qin Haiyang on breaststroke and world record holder Pan Zhanle on freestyle. The team won silver at last year’s Worlds and nearly took down the United States’s world record at the Asian Games shortly after. It may take a world record to win as it did in 2021, so this will surely be a memorable cap to swimming at the Games.