2024 Short Course World Championships
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
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To close off night five of the 2024 Short Course World Championships, the Neutral Athletes B took gold in the 4×100 mixed medley relay in a time of 3:30.47. Meanwhile, the United States won silver despite going with an unpopular female-female-male-male lineup and Canada took bronze.
In this article, we analyze the splits from the aforementioned relay.
Backstroke
Miron Lifintsev of the Neutral Athletes team was the fastest backstroker by a considerable margin, clocking a 48.90 to be the only swimmer under the 50-second barrier and give his team an early lead.
Regan Smith of the United States had the fastest backstroke time on the women’s time. Her mark of 54.19 is underneath her own world record of 54.27, but it does not count as a record because she clocked it in a mixed race.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| Neutral Athletes B | Miron Lifintsev | 48.9 |
| Italy | Lorenzo Mora | 50.11 |
| Great Britain | Oliver Morgan | 50.53 |
| United States | Regan Smith | 54.19 |
| Canada | Ingrid Wild | 55.82 |
| Australia | Iona Anderson | 55.89 |
| Spain | Carmen Weiler Sastre | 56.97 |
| Netherlands | Maaike de Waard | 57.14 |
Breaststroke
After building a lead on backstroke, the Neutral Athletes had the fastest breaststroke split as well, by virtue of Krill Prigoda‘s 54.86 — the fastest split in the field by over a second. Meanwhile, the United States’ Lilly King had the fastest female split, and was one of just two female swimmers to be on the breastsroke leg.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| Neutral Athletes B | Krill Prigoda | 54.86 |
| Canada | Finlay Knox | 56.39 |
| Australia | Joshua Yong | 56.4 |
| Netherlands | Caspar Corbeau | 56.47 |
| Spain | Carles Coll Marti | 56.63 |
| Italy | Ludovico Viberti | 57.08 |
| United States | Lilly King | 1:03.06 |
| Great Britain | Angharad Evans | 1:03.44 |
Butterfly
On the butterfly leg, Australia’s Matt Temple, the United States’ Dare Rose and Canada’s Ilya Kharun all gave their nations a significant boost, splitting within 0.07 of each other. Meanwhile, Arina Surkova‘s 55.63 fly leg was enough to maintain the Neutral Athletes’ dwindling lead.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| Australia | Matthew Temple | 48.63 |
| United States | Dare Rose | 48.68 |
| Canada | Ilya Kharun | 48.7 |
| Spain | Mario Molla Yanes | 49.19 |
| Netherlands | Nyls Korstanje | 49.83 |
| Great Britain | Joshua Gammon | 50 |
| Neutral Athletes B | Arina Surkova | 55.63 |
| Italy | Elena Capretta | 56.77 |
Freestyle
The United States’ Jack Alexy was the only male anchor and nearly ran down Daria Kepikova, but he missed by just 0.08 seconds. That being said Kepikova’s 51.08 split was also fastest amongst the women and was crucial for the Neutral Athletes’ victory — if she went any slower than Alexy would have caught her.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| United States | Jack Alexy | 44.63 |
| Neutral Athletes B | Daria Kepikova | 51.08 |
| Canada | Mary-Sophie Harvey | 51.49 |
| Great Britain | Eva Okaro | 51.49 |
| Italy | Sara Curtis | 51.58 |
| Australia | Milla Jansen | 51.91 |
| Netherlands | Milou van Wijk | 52.6 |
| Spain | Maria Daza Garcia | 52.73 |
How stupid is this rule, that the lead off leg doesn’t count as a record because “she clocked it in a mixed race?” She swam that fast, regardless.
It’s because it can be abused. If they counted you’d have people taking advantage of the rule and leading off a guy and have him go 53 mid on the lane rope and pulling someone to a world record.
She had waves and drift from the males
Is there a max number of events one swimmer can enter per the rules? Is it possible someone can only do a limited amount of relays?
Alexy doing his thing. The US needs Fink back.
I wonder what Aikins will show in the 200? He went 52 in the 100 back (LC) at trials. He was a possibility to leadoff in this race with G Walsh on fly.
Men’s medley should be Casas, Pouch, Rose, & Alexy. Might’ve put Casas on fly & Aikins on back (pending his form) but the 200 back is in the same session tomorrow.
Ilya actually went 48.27 not 48.7
As a footnote, the male contingent of USA Swimming failed to put a swimmer in the final of the 50 BK, 100 BK, 50 BR, 100 BR.
It’s the fastest freestyle all-time split, no?
I remember Grevers 44.68 and Cielo 44.67(2014).
But this is on a mixed relay…
tied with chalmers’ split from the dead-heated wr
The US coach was wrong
Once I saw female breaststroker I knew the margin for error was gone. You might narrowly get away with it. Big deal. Everything is about maximizing margin for error.