General
The ROC women's 4x200m freestyle relay team qualified for Tokyo via the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju. Previously, the Russian Federation competed in the event at four editions of the Olympic Games, making the final on just one occasion. At the 2016 Games in Rio, they qualified fourth-fastest for the final in a national record time, but went on to swim almost three seconds slower in their one and only final appearance to date, to finish seventh.
At the world championships, the Russian team failed to make the final at six editions from 2001 to 2015, but improved their times markedly at the two most recent editions. They qualified for the final at both the 2017 and 2019 editions, swimming under 7:49.00 on both occasions for the first time at any Olympic, world or European championship event. Their time in 2017 was almost enough to win a medal, but they were beaten to third place by Australia by .08s and had to settle for fourth. At the most recent edition of the world championships in 2019 they swam even faster than in 2017, but it was only enough to earn them a fifth-place finish in Gwangju.
At continental level the Russian women claimed silver at the European championships in 2018, their first ever medal at the tournament.
Swimming
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