Quietly Confident Quartet - Event History and Expectations

Event History and Expectations

The United States had always won the 4 × 100 m medley relay since the event's inception at the Olympics in 1960 with comfortable margins. The closest winning buffer was 2.6 seconds and in 1972 and 1976 they had won by 4.10 and 3.72 s respectively; their boycott opened up the field in the event. In the five previous times the event had been contested, Australia's best result had come in the inaugural race in Rome, where the team of David Theile, Terry Gathercole, Neville Hayes and Geoff Shipton out-touched Japan to claim silver. The only other time that Australia had won a medal was in Tokyo in 1964, when Peter Reynolds, Ian O'Brien, Kevin Berry and David Dickson finished behind the United States and Germany. The following two Games saw a fourth placing and an elimination in the heats. The previous outing in 1976 in Montreal had seen Australia come sixth. Kerry was the only veteran of the 1976 relay team who returned to the Olympics in Moscow.

Australia was regarded by swimming analysts as a medal chance, but were not seen as the main threats—Sweden, Great Britain and the Soviet Union were the most heavily fancied teams. The hosts had the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, Viktor Kuznetsov and Arsen Miskarov respectively, and their butterflyer Yevgeny Seredin had come fifth in his 100 m event. Their freestyler Sergey Kopliakov later came fourth in the corresponding 100 m event. The British boasted Duncan Goodhew, the 100 m breaststroke gold medallist, and Gary Abraham, who had placed fifth in the 100 m backstroke. Sweden's butterflyer Pär Arvidsson and backstroker Bengt Baron had won their respective 100 m events and their freestyle swimmer Per Holmertz would win silver in the 100 m a few days later. Their weakest swimmer was the breaststroker Peter Berggren, who came ninth in the 100 m. On paper, Australia's team paled in comparison. Brooks later came seventh in his 100 m freestyle semifinal and 14th overall after having an asthma attack, and Evans was Australia's only medallist in the corresponding individual event, winning bronze in the breaststroke. Kerry had been eliminated in the 100 m backstroke semifinals, while Tonelli was the Australian champion in the 100 m freestyle and backstroke but was swimming as a makeshift butterflyer; the nation did not have an entrant in the 100 m butterfly. Adding to the pressure was Australia's failure to win any gold medals in any sport at the 1976 Olympics. This meant that the public were still awaiting their first gold since the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Coming into the Olympics, Australia was ranked seventh out of the thirteen competing countries.