Torri Huske Anchors USA to her 3rd Career World Record Setting Relay (Day 7 Relay Analysis)

2025 World Championships

• July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
• Singapore, Singapore
• World Aquatics Championships Arena
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Entry Book
• Live Results
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Mixed 4×100 Freestyle Relay — Final

• World Record: 3:18.83 — Australia (J. Cartwright, K. Chalmers, S. Jack, M. O’Callaghan) (2023)
• World Junior Record: 3:24.29 — Australia (F. Southam, E. Sommerville, O. Wunsch, M. Jansen) (2023)
• Championship Record: 3:18.83 — Australia (J. Cartwright, K. Chalmers, S. Jack, M. O’Callaghan) (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Australia (J. Cartwright, K. Chalmers, S. Jack, M. O’Callaghan) — 3:18.83

Final: 

1. United States (Alexy, Sammon, Douglass, Huske) — 3:18.48 *World Record*
2. Neutral Athletes B (Kornev, Girev, Trofimova, Klepikova) — 3:19.68
3. France (Grousset, le Goff, Wattel, Gastaldello) — 3:21.35
4. Italy — 3:21.48
5. Netherlands — 3:21.71
6. Canada — 3:23.16
7. Spain — 3:24.87
8. Germany — 3:25.29

A relay that has a very simple strategy of putting your two fastest male swimmers first and then closing with your two fastest female swimmers, the mixed free relay, here in Singapore, had plenty of twists and turns.

After a topsy-turvy prelims, which saw the 2023 World Champions, Australia, as well as the 2024 World Champions, China, miss the cut, the USA, who took no chances in the prelims using a very strong line-up of Chris Guiliano, Jonny Kulow, Simone Manuel, and Kate Douglass. The quartet put the USA into the top spot with a time of 3:21.48, in part thanks to a 52.67 split from 3rd leg Simone Manuel.

In the final, the US kept Kate Douglass on the relay and added in the women’s 100 free bronze medalist, Torri Huske, as well as the men’s 100 free silver medalist, Jack Alexy, and 6th place finisher Patrick Sammon. The group, led off by Alexy and anchored by Huske, got off to a hot start and never looked back as Team USA not only claimed their first relay gold of the week, but their time of 3:18.48 sliced .35 off the two-year-old World Record set by the Australians at the Fukuoka World Championships.

First Leg

Before this summer, Jack Alexy had never broken 47.00, but has now done so four times, three of them coming within the past week. Alexy won the silver medal in the individual 100, going 22.48/24.44 to stop the clock in 46.92 and swam this first leg in nearly identical fashion, open in 22.46 and closing in 22.45 to stop the clock at 46.91, his 2nd fastest performance. His performance got the USA out to a lead that was never really threatened.

Behind Alexy, 7th-place finisher in the 100 free, Maxime Grousset, helped put the French into a strong position as his 47.62 just edged ahead of Egor Kornev‘s 47.69, a reversal of their order of finish in the individual 100 where the NAB athlete was just ahead of Grousset, finishing 5th in 47.51. This trio was the only three lead-off legs to have made the finals of the individual 100 and it showed as they were the only three to open under 48 seconds and gave the race its early leaders

Second Leg

Similar to his teammate Jack Alexy, Patrick Sammon, before this summer, had never broken a key 100 free metric, with the ASU star never getting under 48. A surprise 47.87 in the prelims of US Nationals paved the way to a 47.47 and a roster spot in the 100 free. Sammon, who placed 7th in the individual 100 in yet another sub-48 time (47.58), got the nod for this relay spot, and he certainly delivered on his meteoric rise. The USA, the only team with two swimmers from the men’s 100 final, continued to pull ahead as Sammon dropped a blistering first 50 of 21.77.

Only the Netherlands’ Renzo Tjon-A-Joe joined Sammon with a sub-22 opening 50 (21.84), but while Tjon-A-Joe struggled to maintain the early speed, closing in 26.03, Sammon closed in a swift 24.93 to split 46.70, the only flying leg split under 47.

Ivan Girev was slower than Sammon on the first 50 (22.50) but was faster than France’s Yann le Goff (22.73), and he pulled the NAB team into 2nd, a spot they would not vacate. Girev’s split of 47.08 was the 2nd fastest flying leg, but was still slower than both Sammon and Alexy and his team fell back by over a full second to the Americans.

Carlos D’Ambrosio, the young, newly minted Italian record holder in the 200 free, had a strong pull, splitting 47.34 to help distance his team from the Canadians behind, but more importantly pull him self closer to the French, who were ahead, but lost nearly half a second of their advantage with le Goff splitting 47.77.

Third Leg

The future is bright for Italian swimming as another young national record holder, Sara Curits, produced the 2nd fastest split overall and fastest on the 3rd leg. Curtis, who finished 8th in the individual 100 free (53.41), was not first to the 50 as the Italian opened in 25.01, the NAB’s Daria Trofimova opened in 24.17, but she did come home quickest, splitting 27.39 to split 52.40. Trofimova and Douglass were just behind at 52.42 and 52.43, so Curtis’s strong last 50 did not close the advantage to the top two teams, the USA after Douglass still maintained a lead of 1.15 over the NAB and 1.88 over the Italians.

Curtis split did, however, close the gap on the French, who were sitting in 3rd at the halfway point. Their 3rd leg, Marie Wattel, split a strong 52.74, especially considering that the Frenchwoman struggled at the French trials and only made the team as a relay athlete. However, it wasn’t enough and the Italians had pulled themselves into the presumptive bronze medal position by .21 of a second.

Douglass, who opened in 24.73, was a little slower than her 51.90 relay split from the first night, but it was a strong improvement upon her 53.47 from this morning, and it does come after a long meet for the 200 breaststroke World Champion.

Fourth Leg

After an up-and-down meet, Torri Huske pulled together a strong 52.44 to anchor the USA to a relay gold medal. Huske, who won the 100 free bronze medal in 52.89, has anchored the last three World Record-breaking USA relays as she anchored the Mixed Medley in Paris (51.88) and the Women’s Medley in Paris (52.42). While her time tonight was not the fastest split, it was just .02 off her time from the Women’s medley, and in the context of being unwell, it was a gutsy performance, especially as she opened in a blistering 24.58, the fastest first 50 of the field.

So too was Merrit Steenbergen’s 52.18. The Dutch winner of the 100 free, Steenbergen, was out slower than Huske in 24.99, but her 27.19 closed the gap and gave her the fastest 100 amongst the last two legs. Like Douglass and Huske, Steenbergen has had a busy week and couldn’t match her bests earlier in the week, as she split 51.64 to anchor her team’s bronze medal-winning 4×100 free relay.

Had she been that fast again, the Dutch could have won the bronze, but instead that honor went the way of the French as Beryl Gastaldello‘s 53.22 was strong enough to claw back the gap to the Italians, who anchored with Emma Virginia Menicucci (53.56) and had to settle for 4th place.

1.15 seconds back of 1st and nearly a second ahead of 3rd, Daria Klepikova secured another relay medal for the NAB team as she split 52.49 to add a silver medal to her gold from the Mixed Medley.