Why isn't the 4x100m swim team that where in the semi-final going to swim in the finals? Olympics

Question

In the US 4x100m team that qualified and broke the world record...only one of those swimmers is going to go to the final team because they already have three swimmers. I dont understnad why?

Answer 1

Six swimmers qualify to swim on the relay in the olympics. This allows alternates to give the top 4 a break in the prelims should they need it. Phelps, for instance already swims 18 races over the week and, as you can see, the alternates are so good that they set a world record. The top 2 swimmers didn't swim in the heats.

Phelps is NOT the number 6 (or lower) swimmer in the 100 free. He swam it in the prelims at the Olympic Trials and had the 2nd overall fastest time (even after scratching the finals). He did this only to avoid controversy on who to select for the relay.

He is now the American record holder in the 100 free so technically, he's the number 1  swimmer for qualifying purposes.

If you do your homework you'd notice there are four events that Michael Phelps doesn't even swim in the Olympics that he could win: 100 free (current American Record holder and 2 time National Champion), 400 free (previous American Record holder and two time National Champion), 100 Back (2007 national champion), and 200 back (4 time national champion and previous world record holder).

Thanks for the question.

Answer 2

so that they get more people involved in the olympic experience, they put the top 6 people for the relay events on the olympic team (100, 200 free).  they let ppl 1 and 2 rest during prelims and then only swim in finals (in addition to their individual events) of the relays and then put ppl 3 and 4 on both relays.  Ppl 5 and 6 only swim prelims of the relay.  

Sometimes they switch it up a little bit.  For example, they're letting phelps try for a gold in this (not gonna happen my prediction) so instead of putting 1,2,3,4 on the relay they put 1,2,3, and phelps in the finals.

hope that cleared it up

oh yeah and it wasn't semis it was prelims.  they only let 16 teams in the olympics so there's only 2 rounds of the relays