Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt of the USA took down the World Record in the 4x100m Medley Relay set by China at the World Championships in Rome in 2009. The American team seemed nearly unbeatable going into the final; both Franklin and Vollmer dominated their respective events the (100 Back and 100 Fly) while Soni finished second in the 100m Breaststroke. Allison Schmitt stepped in for Jessica Hardy to finish up on the freestyle leg, as Hardy swam in the final of the 50m Freestyle earlier in the session.
The American team swam close to the World Record pace until the 200m mark where Dana Vollmer put a huge dent in the time to beat, giving Schmitt room to finish it off under China’s World Record time.
Australia’s team of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Alicia Coutts and Melanie Schlanger picked up the silver medal in 3:54.02, while the Japanese women picked up yet another bronze medal. The Japanese team of Aya Terakawa, Satomi Suzuki, Yuka Kato and Haruka Ueda posted a 3:55.73 to finish out a Russian team that touched in second after Yuliya Efimova‘s breaststroke leg.
Splits Compared:
| Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay | 100m | 200m (100m) | 300m (100m) | 400m (100m) |
| China (Rome 2009) WR – Zhao, Chen, Jiao, Li | 58.98 | 2:03.10 (1:04.12) | 2:59.38 (56.28) | 3:52.19 (52.81) |
| USA (London 2012) WR – Franklin, Soni, Vollmer, Schmitt | 58.50 | 2:03.32 (1:04.82) | 2:58.80 (55.48) | 3:52.05(53.25) |
China Sets the World Record in Rome:
i knew this would happen ,,,,,,,,fairly deserved ladies !!!owesome olympics for Us team . Fabulous team . Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Missy is the Queen of these Games by a large fresh margin .
Glad to see the ‘suit” era come to a close!
A FOURTH WORLD RECORD by the US women’s team!!! I can’t believe how well they swam during this competition! It was VERY exciting to watch them succeed!
I’m sorry, I just realized it was actually FIVE records (200 breast TWICE)!