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 team made up of Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Held combined for a new U.S. National Record in the final of the men’s 4×50 medley relay, as they clocked a time of 1:30.90 to win the silver medal.
That swim got them under the 1:31.83 mark set by the U.S. team of Eugene Godsoe, Cody Miller, Tom Shields and Josh Schneider at the 2014 World Championships.
Check out a full split comparison between the two teams below:
| USA, 2014 SC Worlds | USA, 2018 SC Worlds |
| Godsoe – 23.11 | Murphy – 22.73 |
| Miller – 26.04 | Andrew – 26.16 |
| Shields – 21.99 | Dressel – 21.70 |
| Schneider – 20.69 | Held – 20.31 |
| 1:31.83 | 1:30.90 |
Murphy got the U.S. out to the lead with a very quick 22.73 opening leg, just one-tenth off his American Record, and then Andrew was a little off his 25.75 from the mixed medley relay as they fell to 4th. Dressel had the fastest fly split in the field at 21.70 to move them up to 3rd, and Held was the 2nd fastest swimmer on free in 20.31 to bring them the silver behind Russia.
The Russian team finished in a time of 1:30.54, one-tenth off their world record set last year, with Oleg Kostin‘s 25.36 breast leg being the key difference maker over the US. Brazil (1:31.49) edged Italy (1:31.54) for the bronze. Russia also had the fastest free split in the field from Evgeny Rylov (20.22).