After achieving a quinella in the individual 200 m freestyle, Great Britain duly upgraded their silver from Rio five years earlier with an Olympic title. Led off by the 200 freestyle Olympic champion
Tom Dean in a time of 1:45.72 – 1.5 seconds off his winning time – Great Britain fell almost a second behind the pace of the Americans. However, the British team's cumulative depth eventually told as the 2015 World champion at the distance,
James Guy (1:44.40), moved the team into the lead before youngster
Matthew Richards (1:45.01) extended the margin over the field from 0.13 to 1.45 seconds.
Duncan Scott, the silver medallist behind Dean, split a sterling 1:43.45 – the quickest in the field – to anchor the British home to an Olympic record of 6:58.58, just 0.03 seconds outside the world record. Meanwhile, Russia's
Martin Malyutin (1:45.69),
Ivan Giryov (1:45.63) and 100 m backstroke champion
Evgeny Rylov (1:45.26) handed over the anchor leg duties to
Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:45.23), who held off Australia's
Thomas Neill by 0.03 seconds to secure the ROC the silver in 7:01.81. With Australia in fourth heading into the final changeover after swims from
Alexander Graham (1:46.00),
Kyle Chalmers (1:45.35) and
Zac Incerti (1:45.75), Neill blasted a 1:44.74 split to deliver the quartet a bronze medal in 7:01.84. The U.S. failed to win a relay medal (when entering an event) for the first time in Olympic swimming history.
Kieran Smith (1:44.81) had the U.S. in the lead before handing over to
Drew Kibler (1:45.51), who was overtaken by Great Britain's Guy to touch in second. Coming off the 100 free semi-finals earlier in the session, third swimmer
Zach Apple (1:47.31) faded over the closing stages of his leg to fall behind the Italians and Australians. Though the U.S.' anchor
Townley Haas (1:44.87) surpassed Italy's
Stefano Di Cola (1:46.26), he could not close the gap on the Australians as the U.S. settled for fourth in 7:02.43. In podium contention at the final changeover, Italy's foursome of Stefano Ballo (1:45.77),
Matteo Ciampi (1:45.88),
Filippo Megli (1:45.33) and Di Cola missed the medals to take fifth in 7:03.24. Led off by
Antonio Djakovic, who clocked a Swiss record of 1:45.77, Switzerland's quartet also touched in a national record of 7:06.12 to claim sixth. Germany (7:06.51) and Brazil (7:08.22), led off by the bronze medalist in the individual 200 m
Fernando Scheffer, rounded out the championship field. ==Records==