FLASH! Regan Smith Breaks 100 Back WR, Leads American Women to Clobbering Medley Relay WR
The American women have flexed their dominance throughout the six days of the Budapest World Championships: Gretchen Walsh won five individual golds while Regan Smith had three and Kate Douglass two. In their individual events, the trio combined for 13 individual world records, nine of them by Walsh. Add in Lilly King, one of history’s all-time great breaststrokers who picked up two individual medals this week, and there was no chance of the United States being beat in the women’s 400 medley relay. There was no chance of the world record surviving.
Indeed, the foursome wiped almost four seconds off the mark set by an American team that also included King and Douglass at the Short Course World Championships two years ago in Melbourne. King and Douglass almost exactly matched their splits from the 2022 relay, but Smith and Walsh recorded the fastest swims ever in their respective events.
Already in Budapest, Smith broke world records in the 50 back and 200 back, but the 100-meter mark eluded her, a mark of 54.55 in the individual final just off her own mark of 54.27 set earlier this year. Then, Smith beat that time leading off the mixed 400 medley relay Saturday evening, clocking 54.19, but the record did not count because it was a mixed-gender event.
Smith left no doubt this time, beating all of those times convincingly, despite coming in fatigued after achieving her 200 back world record just an hour earlier. Smith clocked 54.02 on the leadoff leg for both the individual record (and another $25,000 bonus check) while giving her team an astounding 2.86-second lead.
King went next and split 1:03.02, marginally quicker than anyone else in the field, including Chinese 100 breast gold medalist Tang Qianting (1:03.17). Walsh went next, and after lowering the 100 fly world record from 54.05 to 52.71 at this meet, she split 52.84 on this relay. That was the quickest mark ever by more than a second, surpassing the 53.93 of Australia’s Emma McKeon two years ago by more than a second.
That left Douglass to come home in 50.53 to secure the gold and another record, the Americans’ overall time of 3:40.41 good for 29th overall world record set this week. This exact American team previously won gold in long course at the 2023 World Championships while Smith, King and Walsh swam the first three legs of a gold-medal-winning, world-record-breaking team at the Paris Olympics, with Torri Huske handling anchor duties on that occasion.
While the U.S. crushed the field, there was a tight battle for the silver and bronze. China sat in second place for most of the race, but a 51.11 anchor split for Great Britain’s Freya Anderson propelled her team into the runnerup spot. Abbie Wood, Angharad Evans and Eva Okaro swam the first three legs of a team that clocked 3:47.84. China’s team of Qian Xinan, Tang Qianting, Chen Luying and Liu Shuhan secured bronze in 3:47.93.
