A new event to the Summer Olympic Games, the 4X100M Mixed Medley Relay, competed as a final on Friday evening (Alaska Time) with Great Britain setting a world record and USA finishing fifth overall.
The USA relay team raced to a 3:40.58, faster than its qualifying time of 3:41.02. Great Britain won the race in a world-record 3:37.58. China, former world record holders, earned the silver in 3:38.86 and Australia won bronze in 3:38.95.
For the 4X100M Mixed Medley Relay, the United States switched up the legs compared to the formula used in the preliminaries, where the USA relay team posted the third fastest time in qualifying.
For the finals, Lydia Jacoby, of Seward, Alaska, gold medalist in the 100M Breaststroke, swam the second leg for Team USA. Backstroke silver and bronze medalist Ryan Murphy swam the opening leg and 100M Freestyle gold medal winner Caeleb Dressel swam the anchor leg. Torri Huske, fourth in the women’s 100-meter butterfly, swam the butterfly leg.
The USA relay was the only team in the final to use a female swimmer in the breaststroke leg. Jacoby posted a near personal-best 1:05.09, just off her gold medal 1:04.95.
The race order for the Mixed Medley includes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle ,which are swam in that order. Each team determines which legs will be swam by male or female swimmers.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
