Budapest 2024, Day 5: Neutral Athletes Edge U.S. by .08 in First Mixed Medley Relay
The conventional logic in mixed medley relays to eschew female breaststrokers and go with male freestylers. The United States on Saturday defied that logic and nearly got away with it.
The U.S. finished second in the first 400-meter mixed medley relay at the World Short-Course Championships, falling .08 behind the Neutral Athletes team.
The team of Russians – Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Arina Surkova and Daria Klepikova – went 3:30.47 to win the title. The U.S. was second in 3:30.55, despite Regan Smith swimming faster than her world record off the front, with Canada picking up the bronze medal in 3:31.97
It’s the first time that the World Short-Course Championships have had a mixed 400 medley relay. Mixed relays at this meet date to the 2014 edition, but they had previously been limited to 200 meters, in both freestyle and medley. (The first long-course 400 mixed medley – and mixed free – relay was at the 2015 World Championships, ahead of its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021.) As such, World Aquatics is only now inaugurating a world record. The winner will set what is officially a World’s Best Time, which is not eligible for a world record pay bonus.
Smith’s leadoff leg is also not eligible to unseat her world record of 54.27.
The Neutral Athletes set themselves into clean water from the start. Lifintsev, the champion in the 50 and 100 back, made sure they never trailed. He was out in 48.90, within two tenths of his world junior record. Prigoda put the team 13.5 seconds ahead of the U.S., which led off its two female swimmers and were unexpectedly eighth at the 200. Smith went 54.19, quicker than her world record of 54.27 and than the meet record of 54.55 she used to win gold. Lilly King followed in 1:03.05.
The U.S. was still eighth after Dare Rose’s fly leg, 6.5 seconds behind the Neutral Athletes and two seconds out of seventh place. Jack Alexy went 44.63 to get within .08 of Klepikova.
The Neutral Athletes also won the 200 medley relay. The U.S. has won gold in both men’s relays contested in Budapest and both women’s relays, plus silver and bronze in the two mixed medley relays. It missed the final of the mixed 200 free relay altogether.
The liability that is American male breaststroke forced the Americans’ hand into using King, despite the logic. Two of the eight teams that qualified in the morning – fourth-place Canada and Great Britain in fifth – fielded female breaststrokers. Angharad Evans reprised that role for fifth-place Britain in the final, joining King. When the U.S. set the world record in the mixed medley relay at the Paris Olympics on the way to gold, the final featured exclusively male breaststrokers.
The Americans led the way in prelims in 3:34.30 before making wholesale changes. Shaine Casas, AJ Pouch, Alex Shackell and Alex Walsh comprised the morning squad. They were .01 ahead of the Aussies, who ran back the same quartet in finals. The Aussies improved by more than a second and a half, but it still left them fourth, nearly a second behind Canada. Britain was fifth, followed by Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
The third-place Dutch were likewise unchanged, while Canada made three substitutions, shuttling Finlay Knox from the anchor in the morning to breaststroke and adding Ingrid Wilm, Ilya Kharun and Mary-Sophie Harvey for Blake Tierney, Sophie Angus and Penny Oleksiak.
