Paris 2024 Olympics: USA takes mixed 4×100 medley gold in world record time
The United States broke the world record in winning the Olympic 4x100m mixed medley relay gold on Saturday, outgunning China and Australia.
The team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske touched in 3min 37.43sec to narrowly better the mark set by Britain at the Tokyo Games, when the event was first added to the Olympic programme.
Zhang Yufei-led China took silver in 3:37.55 with Australia filling the podium in 3:38.76.
It is only the second world record in the pool in Paris after China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the men’s 100m freestyle best.
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Teams in the mixed medley comprise two women and two men, with each of the four swimmers allocated to one of the four traditional medley strokes — backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
The United States chose to lead off with Murphy up against China’s Xu Jiayu with Australia opting for a woman in 100m and 200m Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown.
Both Fink and Walsh then swam storming legs before Huske brought it home with China’s Yang Junxuan and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in hot pursuit.