Olympics Mixed Medley Relay lineup: Who will be chosen?

This is always a tough one. It probably depends on how people look at the time of the meet. My thought is Ryan Murphy back, Lilli King breas,t Caleb Dressler fly, and Simone Manuel free. I know Simone didn't qualify in the 100 and which ever woman is fastest in the 100 is the logical choice, but I'd stick with Simone.

This is the one I figured too, though I'd sit Weitzel there for now pending coach's decision.  Maybe give Simone a shot at prelims women's 4x1 to see how she looks.  50 free semis are immediately before the finals of this relay though, that's going to be a bit interesting.  It's late enough in the meet that we're going to know pretty well how everyone is performing, so should be able to set up a lineup that isn't going to have chokes or anything. 

I think Murphy, King, and Dressel all have more to give from Trials.  Murphy's semi 100 back was maybe the most technically and tactically perfect race I saw all week, he just tightened up in finals.  King and Dressel obviously weren't fully tapered (and didn't need to be).  Dressel is going to be scary, especially if he has as much fun at the big show as he was having at Trials.

I'm not sure that Smith has much more to give and I think out of anybody at this meet she might be most likely to have issues with the pressure.  Huske is of course an option but Dressel is just light years ahead of anybody in the 100 fly that I have a hard time sitting him out there.  Though the wild card with him is that 100 fly finals and 50 free semis are that night.

Ryan Murphy would be awesome on back, but we'll have to see how Simone is doing.  That was an awesome 50 at trials, so based on that performance, your line-up is really solid!

You bring up a lot of good points, Jeff.  It will be interesting to see how it all comes together when the relay line-up is due!

So why do so many people dis the mixed medley relays? They seem quite interesting to me. Also, it's kinda cool that men and women are on the same team. That's a real rarity in sports. Mixed doubles tennis is another example I guess, but the contributions of the men and women are even more equal in the mixed medley relay. Certainly I like the MMR way more than the stroke 50s.

Mixed medley is fun because of all the different strategies involved - no country has knockout legs in every stroke for both genders so there has to be some game playing done.  I'm OK with the mixed free relays but there's really only one way you can swim it, MMFF, unless you want one of your women eating the waves off the team next to you's dive on the last 10m.  So that takes a lot of the strategy out of it - in fact, there's less strategy there than the single-gender free relays because half the decisions are already made for you.

A Team) Regan Smith, Lily King, Caleb Dressel, Zach Apple

B Team) Ryan Murphy, Michael Edwards, Torri Huske, Abbie Weitzel

Your "A Team" is similar to mine-- at least the three I listed.  I never completed my team, but your suggestion of Zach Apple is a good one!

Lilli King is substantially faster than her relay opposition. Same with Caleb Dressel in fly. Regan Smith vs Ryan Murphy on back is close, but I think you want the faster swimmer to give open water to the next swimmer so Murphy. Anchor with the woman who has shown to be fastest at the meet. 

Good point!  I will be curious to see how close we all come to the final line-up.