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 |
The US coach was wrong
Reagan, AJ, GW or KD, Alexy would have won by more than 1.5 seconds. I understand GW and KD have 2 races each tomorrow, but it’s just too risky to use a female breaststroker on a mixed relay.
nm
That would be 3 males lmao
King could have been faster ..tomorrow both men, women medley relays are gonna be epic..Casas, Pouch, Rose, Alexy
I know people were mad about having a female breaststroker but I think this is genuinely a case where female breaststroker was not a nonsensical choice. The gap between the top US female vs male in all the strokes except fly are pretty similar:
Alexy’s flat start was 5.7 seconds faster than Douglass’s flat start.
Pouch’s rolling start was 6 seconds faster than King’s flat start, so estimate that at 5.7 seconds for the same kind of start.
Backstroke is harder since Casas didn’t really have a real 100 back swim, but given his personal best time is 5.7 seconds faster than Regan’s meet best and his performance throughout the meet, you could probably estimate him to… Read more »
The gigantic mistake was that Walsh was less than 4 seconds behind Rose in flat starts.
And there was a much larger gap between King and either of Pouch or Andrew.
It was a no-brainer.
I would of went M-F-F-M
Alexy’s schedule is much smaller than Douglass. So rested benefit.
Same as you, I think casas would of pulled out an insane lead off… His 200 free and IMs suggest just as much.
Then either Douglass or Gretchen in fly, if Gretchen was too gassed…. But her stamina seems to be superb atm.
And then I do think king is a reliable relay piece. Especially when considering the male options.
5.7s faster than Regan would be 48.49. The WR is what, 48.33? Shaine looked great this week, so it’s not unfathomable… but..