2025 World Championships: Five Takeaways From The Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay

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 | Day 8
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Could The U.S. Women Be The Most Dominant Relay Team Ever?

The U.S. have historically great legs on back and fly, and world-class legs on breast and free. Put that all together and you have a team 2.26 seconds faster than any other nation has ever been and 3.53 seconds quicker than anyone else in Singapore.

That was an even bigger gap than last summer in Paris, which at 3.48 seconds had been the largest winning margin at a world championships or Olympics in this event since 1994. The fact that they did that while replacing the premier breaststroker of the last decade, Lilly King, is beyond impressive.

This quartet are each at the top of their game – four 100m stroke medalists, two of them world record holders, and none of them older than 24. Every single one of them has set a new best time in their respective stroke 100 in the last 12-and-a-bit months, and, scarily for everyone else, there are still areas of improvement for them.

Their back half, despite being over a second faster than anyone else here, could feasibly see a drop of around half a second each from Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske. Walsh was four-tenths slower than her flat start best of 54.60 here, and Huske’s 52.52 was off the 51.88 she split on the mixed medley last summer.

The U.S. were the last nation to win the medley relay at an Olympics in their home country – Australia were 2nd at Sydney 2000 and China 3rd at Beijing 2008 – and, even three years out, it looks like it would take the mother of all shocks to see them denied a repeat of that in LA in three years time.

Canada And Australia Have The Same Issue On Breaststroke

Over the last few years, both of these nations have put out several teams with elite legs on backstroke, butterfly and freestyle. Breaststroke, however, is a problem.

Where the U.S. has gone from Rebecca Soni into Jessica Hardy into Lilly King into Kate Douglass, Canada has only just had a swimmer swim stick on this leg for three consecutive years and Sophie Angus, while responsible for four of the five best splits the Canadians have had since 2010, is not at the level of any of the four U.S> swimmers mentioned. Australia have had even less consistency than their Commonwealth foes, having used a different swimmer at each of the last five summer world championships.

Australia have had only three splits under 1:06 in the last 15 years, far fewer than the five they have had over 1:07. Canada, for their part, have an average breaststroke split of 1:07.10 from finals across the last 15 years.

Neither one of those stats is indicative of an area of strength. Australia has still had the depth to finish second to the U.S. consistently, but Canada have missed the podium two summers in a row and no longer have either Maggie MacNeil on fly or a clear route back onto the podium.

A weak leg typically needs an equally strong leg to break even – Adam Peaty balanced out Great Britain’s backstroke leg for years – and Canada doesn’t quite have that.  Kylie Masse is the 3rd-fastest backstroker in history, but is in 58-mid rather than 57-high form at this point in her career, and not far enough ahead of the swimmers from China or NAB to ensure that Canada can stay ahead.

Australia can weather their leg, although are hugely indebted to Kaylee McKeown‘s brilliance on backstroke and their cadre of elite 100 freestylers. Canada are finding it a little more difficult to overcome, and are suffering the misfortune of their most consistent leg in decades, Sophie Angus, appearing just as they lose their generational fly swimmer.

The Dichotomy Of The McKeown-Smith Rivalry

These two statements may seem difficult to make sense of. Regan Smith has beaten Kaylee McKeown four years in a row on the leadoff leg of this relay. Kaylee McKeown has beaten Regan Smith in the individual 100 back the last four times both have contested the event.

It exposes an interesting facet of their battle for supremacy in the 100 back. Both swim well in-season, McKeown is possibly the best pure racer in the world right now, and Smith has historically stepped up on relays. Her fastest swim last summer in Paris, a 57.28 which broke McKeown’s newly-minted Olympic Record, came on this relay and she was faster in 2023 leading off than in the individual final as well.

Smith can beat, has beaten, and, at points, should beat McKeown. There is almost certainly a mental aspect to their individual races now, with McKeown running Smith down in both the 100 and 200 for three years in a row, but on the relay the American has the edge.

On paper the battle in the 100 should be more evenly split in terms of titles than it is. The individual battle was the closest this year that it has ever been – potentially on home soil next year Smith can flip the script.

Germany Return To Heady Heights

Germany had broken the 3:58 barrier on just two occasions in their history prior to this year’s World Championships, both of them at the 2009 World Championships. The super-suited mark of 3:55.79 they set in the final there has stood through 16 years, but with a well-rounded quartet of Lisa Seidel, Anna Elendt, Angelina Koehler and Nina Holt, they came within a quarter of a second to finish 6th.

They were 3:56.44 in the heats to qualify 3rd into the final, which now stands as their 3rd-fastest swim in history, and have  two world champions in Anna Elendt (2025) and Angelina Koehler (2024). This is a young and improving team, and if Lisa Seidel, who is still just 18, can drop time again next summer after going from 1:01.30 to 1:00.64 this year, they are primed for the best streak in their nation’s history.

Their fifth-fastest time ever came last summer, and had big improvements on the breaststroke and freestyle legs this year. Anna Elendt went from 1:05.92 to 1:04.90, with Nina Holt on the anchor dropping from 54.41 to a very solid 53.22. Angelina Koehler does have some more time to give, splitting slower than she went individually here for the second year in a row, but a 56-point split is not to be sniffed at in any case.

They could well be favorites for the European title next summer with the status of Russian athletes up in the air still. European Aquatics allowed junior Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete this summer, including at the European Youth Olympic festival, but with the stipulation that they would not be eligible to swim relays.

While no announcement regarding senior athletes has come out so far, it is likely the same restrictions would apply. With the improvement Germany have shown, they may well have gone in next summer as co-favorites anyway.

Satomi Suzuki Is Aging Like Fine Wine

Satomi Suzuki was on this relay for the first time back in 2010, splitting 1:06.54 for the bronze medal-winning Japanese team at the Pan Pacific Championships.

A decade and a half later, she is still part of this relay and looking a strong contender to reprise her Pan Pac’s role in Irvine in 12 months time. In the individual final, she cracked 1:06 for just the second time, both of which have come after her 33rd birthday.

Despite setting a new best of 1:05.78 in that final, she ended up placing 4th behind NAB’s Evgeniia Chikunova. She missed a medal by just 0.14 seconds – one which would have been her first since making the podium twice back at the London 2012 Olympics. Only two individual medalist in Singapore, Katie Ledecky and Ruta Meilutyte, won an international medal that long ago.

No other breaststroker in this final was older than 11 when she made her senior international debut, and all bar Sophie Angus were 8 years old or younger.

Suzuki outsplit half of them in 1:05.57, just off the 1:05.50 she swam in the morning. Those were her second- and fourth-fastest splits ever, with first and third coming last year, where she was 1:05.08 in the Olympic final as Japan finished 5th.

Suzuki had a decade-long hiatus from this relay, displaced by Kanako Watanabe and then Reona Aoki, but has looked indispensable since returning in 2023. She split 1:05.96 on the bronze medal-winning relay back in 2012, and has been faster five times – all within the last two years.

Breaststroke has allowed some of its stars to age gracefully – Felipe Lima and Joao Gomes won world medals well into their 30s – and Suzuki is one of the best examples.