RIO DE JANEIRO – After a strong swim in the preliminaries of the 4x100-meter medley relay, David Plummer's job just got a whole lot easier.
The former Gopher led off for the U.S. team in the second qualifying heat Friday, helping the U.S. finish in 3 minutes, 31.83 seconds to move into Saturday's finals. All he has to do now is root from the stands as his teammates try to keep an unblemished record intact. The American men have won 13 of 14 Olympic golds awarded in the 4x100 medley relay; the only time they didn't win was in 1980, when the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Games.
"I'm happy,'' said Plummer, who won bronze in the men's 100 backstroke Monday. "We got the team through where they needed to be, and we got a good lane for tomorrow night. We were just trying to put together strong swims, and we did.''
Great Britain recorded the fastest time in the preliminaries at Olympic Aquatics Stadium, at 3:30.47. Plummer swam his backstroke leg in 52.70 as he joined Kevin Cordes, Tom Shields and Caeleb Dressel on the preliminary swim for the U.S.
Ryan Murphy, Cody Miller, Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian will take over for the final. Swimmers who participate in preliminaries do receive medals, so Plummer could wind up with a gold to go with his bronze.
"There's a confidence that comes with [the streak],'' Plummer said. "We went into that race with our preliminary guys knowing that team could compete for a medal, much less our night team tomorrow. We get a lot of confidence from that.''