U.S. Adds Paige Madden, Alex Walsh to Finals of 800 Free Relay at Short Course Worlds

2024 Short Course World Championships

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
• Roster Index
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Pick’em
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
• Finals Live Recap: Day 1  | Day 2 | Day 3

The lineups for finals of the women’s 800 free relay include two changes for the top seeded Americans that should put Team USA pretty far out-of-reach for the rest of the world in the event final.

Already with a 1.3 second lead over the Neutral Athletes from Russia, Team USA will drop Phoebe Bacon‘s 1:54.52 split and Lilla Bognar‘s 1:57.44 split and add in Alex Walsh and Paige Madden.

Walsh has a flat-start best of 1:53.90 from the 2022 Short Course World Championships, where a relay leadoff was her only career SCM time in the 200 free. Given her improvements in the 200 yard free in recent seasons, that seems probably shy of what she’s capable of.

Madden, meanwhile, has a flat-start best of 1:53.01 from the 2021 World Short Course Championships. She’s moved further to the distance frees since then, but is an NCAA Champion in the 200 yard free.

With Katie Grimes (1:54.98 flat start) having some slack in her prelims swim and Claire Weinstein splitting 1:53.10 on the anchor leg in the morning, it seems the USA relay lineup is probably capable of around the U.S. should be able to swim a 7:33-or-so in finals, which is more than two seconds away from the World Record but should win gold easily.

The U.S. only won bronze in 2022, setting the American Record in 7:34.70, but the defending champion Australians don’t have as good of a relay as they did two years ago.

The 2nd-seeded Neutral Athletes also have swapped three of their four legs. While that should significantly improve their relay, nobody on their roster flat-started better than 1:54.4 at the Russian Championships. The 3rd seeds from Italy are using the same relay, though they swapped their first and second legs.

Look for Australia, 5th in prelims, to fight for medals in the final. While they were 7:41.75 in the heats, they’ve dropped a 1:55 leg from Tara Kinder and replaced her with Lizzie Dekkers; interestingly, they’ve kept Milla Jansen on the relay in spite of a 1:58.31 split in the heats, so they must be expecting more from her. She has a best of 1:54.98 in long course.