400 metres Individual Medley, Men

Japan’s Kosuke Hagino had won gold in the 400 IM at Rio in 2016, but he was no longer swimming the event. His teammate Daiya Seto, who won the 2019 World Championships in both IMs, was now considered the favorite, and had the top time of the world coming into Tokyo with 4:09.02, set at the Japanese Olympic Trials in April. Seto was coming off a six-month suspension in 2020 by the Japanese Swimming Federation for an ethics violation, having admitted to an extramarital affair. Seto’s biggest challenger was expected to be American Chase Kalisz, the silver medallist at both the 2016 Olympics and the 2019 World Championships. Kalisz had won the US Olympic Trials in 4:09.09, close behind’s Seto’s best 2021 mark.

Seto versus Kalisz never materialized as Seto shockingly finished ninth in the preliminaries and did not make the final. The prelims were led by Australian Brendon Smith with New Zealander Lewis Clareburt second, followed by Kalisz. Kalisz would lead most of the final, taking over on the second leg, the butterfly, although Clareburt took a brief lead at the end of the butterfly. Kalisz regained the lead on breaststroke and held it to win comfortably by almost a second. Behind him, his teammate Jay Litherland surprised by coming in for silver, despite having been fourth for most of the splits. Brendon Smith had likewise trailed badly most of the race but had the fastest finish and garnered the bronze medal, as Clareburt struggled in the freestyle, eventually finishing seventh.