FLASH! American Women Break World Record in Women’s Medley Relay in Dominant Closing Statement
The four American women walked down the pool deck wrapped in an embrace with the Stars and Stripes flag draped over their shoulders, an imperfect meet at the Singapore World Championships capped off with a show of force in the 400 medley relay.
The group of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske represents the core of the American women’s team that won a medal in every event prior to the last day of competition of Singapore. All four are experienced veterans of at least one Olympics, with all except Walsh having competed in both Tokyo and Paris. All have captured individual world titles. And this medley relay almost always brings out the best of what the American women are capable of.
Even with the team having battled stomach illness throughout the World Championships, the Americans remained heavily favored entering this medley relay. All four women won medals in their respective 100-meter events, with Walsh scoring gold in dominant fashion. Even Australia, with two world champions and one bronze medalist competing, had a major weakness to overcome.
And the race was effectively over when Smith beat Kaylee McKeown, her longtime rival in the backstroke events, on the leadup leg. Just like at last year’s Olympics, Smith turned the tables from the individual 100 back when the relay came around. She touched in 57.57, 0.12 ahead, and that set Douglass up for blast through the breaststroke leg. One length in, and the lead was over a second.
Douglass ended up splitting 1:04.27, more than a second ahead of anyone else in the field. Next up was Walsh, whose split of 54.98 was quicker than any other swimmer has ever gone and almost a second quicker than anyone else in the heat. On the end, Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan out-split Huske, but she made almost no inroads in Huske’s enormous margin. Barring a disqualification, nothing could have stopped the Americans here.
The team finished in 3:49.34 to win gold by 3.33 seconds over Australia. In last year’s Olympic final, the group swam the first sub-3:50 performance in history, and they took down their own world record here by three tenths. Three of the same four swimmers returned from that Paris squad, with Douglass taking over for Lilly King. Notably, the retiring King earns one final gold medal after handling breaststroke duties in prelims.
“I love having the privilege of leading off this relay and doing backstroke. It’s always a big deal to me to get us off to a really great start. I have a lot of pride for this event, so I love getting us off to a lead, and I know these three girls are going to build it,” Smith said in an interview with NBC Sports.
“Just the fact that it’s a team effort is a huge thing to me,” Walsh said. “I love that aspect of our sport. The relays just bring out the best in people, and I feel like today, we were able to leave this meet, end with a bang. The world record was awesome, too. I love that we were able to do this two years in a row.”
Australia claimed silver here in 3:52.67, two seconds clear of the third-best team in the pool. McKeown, Ella Ramsey, Alex Perkins and O’Callaghan competed for the Dolphins, with O’Callaghan coming home in 52.23 to secure her fifth medal of the competition (three gold and two silver).
China grabbed bronze in 3:54.77 with the team of Peng Xuwei, Tang Qianting, Zhang Yufei and Cheng Yujie. Tang went 1:05.48 on breaststroke, second-best in the field, while Zhang rebounded from mixed results this meet to go 56.32 on butterfly.
Just missing the podium was the team of Neutral Athletes, despite Daria Klepikova providing the only sub-56 butterfly split aside from Walsh. Canada was fifth in 3:55.63, with Summer McIntosh following up her busy schedule with a 57.35 butterfly leg. Sixth-place Germany got a 1:04.90 split from Anna Elendt, the 100-meter world champion, on the breaststroke leg.
