Team USA Breaks Women’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay World Record In 7:30.13

2024 Short Course World Championships

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
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The United States team of Alex Walsh, Paige Madden, Katie Grimes, and Claire Weinstein closed out another fast session at the 2024 Short Course World Championships with a world record in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. It was the third world record broken in the session after Summer McIntosh‘s 200 butterfly (1:59.32) and Gretchen Walsh’s 100 IM (55.71).

But while many were on world record watch for those two events, far fewer expected this world record to be broken. For the United States, Paige Madden and Claire Weinstein raced on the nation’s silver-medal-winning relay at the Paris Olympics earlier this year, but neither Alex Walsh nor Katie Grimes are familiar faces on the international 200 freestyle scene. However, a competitive final between the United States, Hungary, and Australia put the world record into play.

Hungary and Australia were under world record pace at the end of the first leg, while Walsh kept the United States close with a 1:53.25. Madden’s 1:53.18 pulled the team into second place, and Grimes split 1:53.39 to give the United States the lead with 200 meters remaining.

Then, the 17-year-old Weinstein dove into the pool. She anchored the quartet in a blistering 1:50.31, which USA Swimming lists as the fastest short-course meters 200 freestyle relay split by .91 seconds, surpassing Femke Heemskerk‘s 1:51.22 split from the Netherlands’ world record-setting swim in 2014.

Australia’s world record line had begun to creep away during the third leg, but Weinstein chased after it, and the line was at her shoulders when she stopped the clock at 7:30.13, .74 seconds faster than the 7:30.87 Australia swam at the 2022 Short Course World Championships.

Split Comparison:

It’s the first world record for the majority of the United States relay. Madden, who won two medals in Paris after dealing with illness during the Olympic quad, was one of many swimmers who became emotional after the race. She spoke about how special it was to have the team’s name written into the record books after being on the 4×200 freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics, where the United States was under the former world record but finished second.

Behind the U.S squad, a young Hungarian team of Nikolett Padar, Panna Ugrai, Dora Molnar, and Lilla Minna Abraham earned silver, while Australia’s quartet of Leah Neale, Elizabeth Dekkers, Milla Jansen, and Lani Pallister took bronze.