2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
The American quartet of Olivia Smoliga, Katie Meili, Kelsi Dahlia and Mallory Comerford came together to obliterate the world record in the women’s 4×50 medley relay, clocking a time of 1:42.38 to slash 0.89 seconds off the mark of 1:43.27.
That record was set by the American squad two years ago in Windsor who won gold, with Dahlia being the only remaining member from that team.
On the lead-off, Smoliga’s 50 back split of 25.97 broke the American Record set by Ali DeLoof on that 2016 relay. Check out a full split comparison below:
| USA, 2016 SC Worlds | USA, 2018 SC Worlds |
| Ali DeLoof – 26.12 | Olivia Smoliga – 25.97 |
| Lilly King – 28.78 | Katie Meili – 29.29 |
| Kelsi Worrell (Dahlia) – 24.44 | Kelsi Dahlia – 24.02 |
| Katrina Konopka – 23.93 | Mallory Comerford – 23.10 |
| 1:43.27 | 1:42.38 |
The runner-ups from China broke the Asian Record once again in 1:44.31, taking down the 1:45.53 mark that they had set in the prelims.
You could argue the ‘true’ world record was the 1:42.69 European record set by the Netherlands in 2009 (albeit set prior to FINA recognising 4×50 medley WRs)
Great swim from USA regardless!
EDIT: typo correction
they did not even have Lilly King here ….amazing relay !!!