Returning Olympians: Which Tokyo Medalists Will Be Back In Paris?

This article originally appeared in the 2024 Olympic Preview edition of SwimSwam Magazine, courtesy of author James Sutherland. Subscribe to the SwimSwam Magazine here.

With a short three-year window between Olympics, with a bunch of major international meets packed in between, there were not as many retirements post-Tokyo as we usually see at the end of an Olympic cycle.

That, coupled with the fact that the majority of the medalists in Tokyo were in their prime and still have plenty of runway in their careers, there have only been a handful of reigning Olympic medalists who won’t be back vying to make it two in a row in Paris.

Below, find the individual medal table from the Tokyo Games with the swimmers who won’t be returning crossed out. That includes retirements, Russian swimmers who haven’t applied for neutral status, and those who failed to qualify at their respective national trials.

MEN

The men’s distance freestyle and breaststroke events will feature all three returning medalists from Tokyo, as will the men’s 100 fly. The gold and silver medalists will be absent in the 400 free and 100 back.

WOMEN

On the women’s side, we’ll see the full podium from Tokyo return in the 400 and 800 free, 100 back, and 200 IM, while two-thirds of the medalists from 2021 will be missing in the 50, 100 free and 1500 free, and 400 IM.