Tokyo 2020: Brazil swimmers respond to disappointing Rio 2016 with 2 podium finishes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian swimming ended its participation in the Tokyo Games with two bronze medals, showing that the sport is recovering after the country had no one on the podium at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The disappointing campaign five years ago was the worst since Athens 2004, the last time the country’s swimming team went without a medal at the Games.

Aside from Fratus’ third-place finish in the 50m freestyle, the most surprising result was that of Fernando Scheffer, who won bronze in the 200m freestyle.

Far from being considered a favorite, he swam in lane eight, near the edge of the pool, and delivered a great race with a South American record in 1:44.66 minutes.

At 23, Scheffer brought Brazil back to the podium in this event 25 years after Gustavo Borges, the silver medalist in the 200m freestyle in Atlanta in 1996.

Brazilian swimming is experiencing an off-season with new names emerging. Of the 26 swimmers who participated in the Tokyo Games, 16 had never competed in the Olympics before.

One of the federation’s goals after the disappointing campaign in Rio was to conduct more exchanges for the athletes and aim to participate in international competitions at a higher level. In the final phase of preparation for the Tokyo Games, the pandemic affected not only the training of all athletes but also the classification for the Olympic Games.

In Tokyo, some results were not as expected. Brazil, for example, finished eighth in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. The quartet of Breno Correia, Gabriel Santos, Pedro Spajari, and Marcelo Chierighini could not keep up with the pace of their competitors and swam in last place throughout the race.

More was also expected from the 800m freestyle final with Guilherme Costa. He had qualified for the decision with the fifth-best overall time as he set the new South American record for the race. However, in the final, he admitted that he had made a mistake in his strategy, and that was why he was slower in the final and finished eighth.

The same thing happened to Leonardo de Deus in the 200-meter butterfly final.

In the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay, Guilherme Guido, Felipe Lima, Vinicius Lanza, and Marcelo Chierighini were eliminated because they erred the transition from backstroke to breaststroke.

Looking ahead to the next Olympic cycle in Paris in 2024, Brazil has high expectations for the 4x200m freestyle relay. At the Tokyo Games, the quartet finished eighth in the final. However, the team is made up of young swimmers with growth potential: Fernando Scheffer (23), Murilo Sartori (19), Breno Correia (22), and Luiz Altamir (25).