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)
In a come from behind effort, the American team of Olivia Smoliga, Michael Andrew, Kelsi Dahlia and Caeleb Dressel broke the world record in the mixed 4×50 medley relay in a time of 1:36.40, improving on the 1:37.17 mark set by the Americans at the 2013 Duel in the Pool.
Smoliga led them off in 25.85, under her American Record breaking swim of 25.97 from the women’s medley relay (though it won’t officially count), and then Andrew (25.75) and Dahlia (24.71) both had fast splits on breast and fly. However, they still sat 7th going into the freestyle as all of the other teams except Finland had used up their two men on the opening three legs.
That left Dressel with just under three seconds to make up, and he did it easily with one of the fastest relay splits in history in 20.09. The only splits ever sub-20 were done in the same relay, where Fred Bousquet (19.87) and Amaury Leveaux (19.93) did so for France at the 2008 European Championships. Both of those were done in tech suits, and Dressel looks to have secured the 3rd fastest split ever in a textile behind Florent Manaudou (20.04) and Cesar Cielo (20.08), who both did those splits at the 2014 World Championships in Doha. That was the same meet where Manaudou set the individual world record of 20.26.
The previous World record, held by Eugene Godsoe, Kevin Cordes, Claire Donahue and Simone Manuel, was notably done at the end of the Duel in the Pool as a swim-off for the title after the U.S. and Europe were tied in points at the end of the meet.
Check out a comparison of the two teams below:
| USA, 2013 Duel in the Pool | USA, 2018 SC Worlds |
| Godsoe – 22.88 | Smoliga – 25.85 |
| Cordes – 25.40 | Andrew – 25.75 |
| Donahue – 25.28 | Dahlia – 24.71 |
| Manuel – 23.61 | Dressel – 20.09 |
| 1:37.17 | 1:36.40 |
This is the 2nd consecutive World title for the U.S. in this event, after they won in similar fashion two years ago in Windsor. There, Michael Chadwick split 20.44 on the anchor leg as they came from behind and broke the Championship Record in a time of 1:37.22.
Finishing 2nd tonight, the Netherlands were also under the old world record in 1:37.05, with the fastest female legs in the field on fly and free from Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.27) and Femke Heemskerk (22.90).
I wonder what the time would be if Dressel swam fly and Dahlia swam free. I guess about 4 tenths slower.
Twenty flat! I will say it again twenty flat !!!
Caeleb legendary and so are rowdy’s calls 😂
No one hanging out on the lane lines for this relay. These swimmers were not tired and could get out in time. #FinaWho
Were the two sub :20 splits supersuit times? I seem to remember that the supersuits persisted in SCM a bit longer than in LCM.
They were.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Dressel doesnt have a top ten in the NCAA because he’s not eligible any longer to swim in the NCAA. 🤦🏼♂️
I love how all these clowns were saying Dressel will win 9 gold medals. How Dressel has the best start in the world, dressel is the best in the world. He is unbeatable. Well he certainly has been beaten
Only rowdy said that lol
I changed my username back
Agreed, Robert. Great insight and well said. It must be because he has dialed down his lifting to twice a week. Lifting is becoming a huge part of the sport and it is evident that those who do not practice weight training on a constant basis fall behind, or in your words, “pass their peak.”
Freezing cold take