2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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The United States’ 4×50 medley relay quartet of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Shaine Casas, and Michael Andrew combined for a final time of 1:30.37, marking a new American Record. The previous record of 1:30.90 was done in at the 2018 Short Course World Championships by Murphy, Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, and Ryan Held.
The Americans were also under the previous Championship Record, but took silver behind Italy who set a new World Record in a 1:29.72. The Italian team is the first team to break the 1:30 barrier in the event.
Murphy got the U.S. out to strong start with the fastest split of the field at 22.61, while Fink followed with the 2nd-fastest breaststroke split at 25.24. Casas hit a 22.13 on fly, while Andrew anchored with the fastest split of the event at 20.39.
Both Murphy and Andrew were on the previous record-setting relay team, but Andrew switched legs from breaststroke to freestyle. The largest split differential actually comes from the breaststroke leg, and is a big reason as to why they were able to get under the previous record. Fink out-split what Andrew did in 2018 by 0.92, putting them far enough ahead of the old record that it didn’t matter that the back half of the team was slower.
Murphy’s splits were close, but he was over a tenth faster here than he was back in Hangzhou.
Split Comparison:
| American Record – 2022 | Previous American Record – 2018 | |
| Back | Ryan Murphy – 22.61 | Ryan Murphy – 22.73 |
| Breast | Nic Fink – 25.24 | Michael Andrew – 26.16 |
| Fly | Shaine Casas – 22.13 | Caeleb Dressel – 21.70 |
| Free | Michael Andrew – 20.39 | Ryan Held – 20.31 |
| Total: | 1:30.37 | 1:30.90 |
The American men have picked gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay and bronze in the 4×100 freestyle relay. The 4×100 medley relay is set for today.
With the number of relays american swimmers swim during club and NCAA competition it is surprising for me USA had the slowest combined reaction time (not counting backstroke reaction time) among top 5 relays for both men and women. On the men side USA finished 0.65 behind Italy, to big of the difference to make up with exchanges, on the women side USA was only 0.06 behind Australia where better relay exchanges could mean a gold medal. USA was also only 0.02 ahead of Sweden who had much better exchanges.
Men
Italy 0.60
USA 0.86
Australia 0.60
Japan 0.31
France 0.30
Women
Australia 0.83
USA 0.87
Sweden 0.29
Canada 0.69
Netherlands 0.41
It is one thing to have relay exchange experience vs relay exchanges experience with the same teammates. But yeah relay exchanges for USA at this meet have been slow and that is on the COACHES.