Australia Shatters Women’s 4×100 Free Relay World Record with Stunning 3:27.96

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 23 to 30, 2023
• Fukuoka, Japan
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WOMEN’S 4×100 FREESTYLE RELAY – FINAL

• World Record: Australia – 3:29.69 (2021)
• Championship Record: Australia – 3:30.21 (2019)
• 2022 World Champion: Australia – 3:30.95

1. Australia — 3:27.96 (WORLD RECORD)
2. United States — 3:31.93
3. China — 3:32.40
4. Great Britain — 3:33.90
5. Sweden — 3:34.17
6. Netherlands — 3:35.41
7. Canada — 3:36.62
8. Japan — 3:38.61

As part of Australia’s incredible day 1 of the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, the Aussie women’s 4×100 team of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Meg Harris, and Emma McKeon absolutely shattered the World Record. The team put together an astonishing 3:27.96, blowing out the previous record of 3:29.69, which Australia set back at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.

To put in context just how fast this relay performance was, 3:27.96 is averaging exactly 51.99 seconds per swimmer. It was a big deal when the Aussies went under 3:30 in Tokyo, well, they completely blown that mark out of the water now. Truthfully, there isn’t that much to say about the race other than to keep reiterating that it was a shockingly fast performance by Australia, one that continues to prove their dominance in the women’s 100 free.

Here is a split comparison between the Australian relay tonight and their former WR relay from Tokyo:

It’s amazing to think that the two swimmers Australia traded out from that former WR team in Tokyo are the Campbell sisters, and they went nearly 2 second faster without them. Of course, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon were members of that relay in Tokyo, as well as tonight’s relay in Fukuoka. Harris has shown tremendous improvement, taking her split down from a 53.09 in Tokyo all the way to a 52.29 tonight in Fukuoka. While McKeon was slower than her historic 51.35 split from Tokyo tonight, it’s impossible to criticize a swimmer for splitting 51.90.

That being said, Harris’ improvement coupled with McKeon’s being slower than she was in Tokyo comes out to almost a wash. The real difference on this relay came from the 2 swimmers who weren’t on the relay in Tokyo. Mollie O’Callaghan’s 52.08 lead-off cannot be undervalued. She not only got the Aussies out to the lead, she threw down a new lifetime best, and most importantly (for these purposes), she was nearly a full second faster than Bronte Campbell‘s 53.01 lead-off from Tokyo. And that brings us to Shayna Jack. After she roared to a huge new personal best of 52.28 leading the relay off this morning, it seemed like Jack could be counted on for a great leg tonight. I don’t think anyone was expecting a 51.69 out of her, but that’s exactly what Jack delivered. It’s an all-time relay split, also marking the fastest split in the field tonight.

Before we get into more analysis on the relay, we should note that with her 52.08 lead-off tonight, Mollie O’Callaghan has now moved up to #6 all-time in the women’s 100 free. O’Callaghan was already in the all-time top 10, however, with the addition of Jack this morning, I should also point out that Australia now has 5 swimmers in the all-time top 10 in the event.

Now, back to how great this relay was. To put it in perspective in a different way, there were only 3 swimmers in the field tonight who split faster than the slowest Aussie (Harris). Harris split 52.29 on the 3rd leg. Netherlands Marrit Steenbergen threw down a sizzling 51.84 on the anchor leg of her relay, Sarah Sjostrom led off in a very quick 52.24 on the Swedish relay, and Kate Douglass clocked a 52.28 on the anchor of the American relay, beating Harris’ time by 0.01 seconds. It’s also true that if we took the 4 fastest splits from non-Australian swimmers tonight and put them on a relay together, they still wouldn’t have beaten the Australians.