2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- SCM (25m)
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The American team of Torri Huske, Claire Curzan, Erika Brown, and Kate Douglass took home gold in the 4×50 freestyle relay in record breaking they fashion. They combined for a final time of 1:33.89, dipping below both the American record and Championship record time of 1:34.03.
Huske opened the race with a 24.03 lead-off, followed by Curzan splitting a 23.30, Brown with a 23.74, and Douglass anchoring in a blistering 22.77. They finished just under half a second ahead of the Australians, who posted a 1:34.23.
The previous American and Championship record were set in the same race by the U.S. team of Madison Kennedy, Mallory Comerford, Kelsi Dahlia, and Brown. They posted the record at the 2018 FINA SC World Championships in Hangzhou.
Split Comparison:
| American Record – 2022 | Previous American Record – 2018 |
| Torri Huske – 24.08 | Madison Kennedy – 24.05 |
| Claire Curzan – 23.30 | Mallory Comerford – 23.38 |
| Erika Brown – 23.74 | Kelsi Dahlia – 23.37 |
| Kate Douglass – 22.77 | Erika Brown – 23.33 |
| Total: 1:33.89 | Total: 1:34.23 |
Brown is the only overlap on these relays, and was actually much quicker in 2018 as the anchor than she was this evening as the third leg.
The splits show that Douglass’ 22.77 made all the difference in them getting this record. At the 100 mark, they were nearly matched exactly to the record split, while Dahlia’s split pulls away from Brown’s in the third leg. With Douglass splitting about half a second faster than Brown did in 2018, they were able to dip under the record in the final 50.
Douglass was only one of two people in the field who split sub-23. The other was Australia’s Emma McKeon, who anchored their team with a 22.73, helping them notch silver.
I know this is an oversimplification, but I’m very amused by how, on paper, Australia’s sprint free weapon was neutralized by the US #2 200 breaststroker.
She is the American record holder in the 50 free
It would be fun to see how Gretchen Walsh and a back-in-top-form Abbey Weitzeil could be subbed in to help bring that time down even more.
Walsh’s anchor from NCAAs roughly converts to the same time as Douglas’ anchor today so with her instead of Brown, if they were firing on all cylinders they could probably make a run at the world record
Is Walsh going to be on the team? You have to qualify via LCM according to USA swimming. She needs to jump that hurdle first
She was 0.01 off making the LC worlds team in the 50 IIRC. it’s not exactly miles away.
This is yet another argument for needing a SCM trials meet just like they have with the LCM trials
For the next medley relay, it’s clear we should flip-flop Douglass to free (she split a *full second* faster than Huske’s 23.7 split on the mixed medley) and Huske to fly (her flat start 24.6 was comparable to Douglass’s 24.0 fly split). With Curzan in back and King in breast — I have to believe that’s a WR relay in the making.
Yep this kinda remind me of 2019 wc with most medley relay swimmers is on form especially King , Manuel and Smith and there was a world record too back then on the LC for medley relay.
That WR is FAST
It is indeed fast, but… consider the French 2008 Men’s 1:20.77 (average 50m time: 20.19). It’s technically only the “World Best” because FINA didn’t register 4×50 Records at the time, but… by all means, could be the very hardest World Record to break on the books, right up there with the likes of the LCM Men’s 800FR and Women’s 200FL.
At these World Championships the fastest Women’s team was 1.39 seconds off their World Record (1.58% away), whereas the fastest Men’s team was… 2.67 seconds off (3.20% away).
True. But with GWalsh, the U.S. team would have been a LOT closer.
The wildest thing is that it’s a club record too – all 4 of the Dutch women breaking the WR swam for the same team. Not sure if there’s been other relay WRs like that on the books
Marseille back in 2008 4X100 SCM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_4_%C3%97_100_metres_freestyle_relay
I thought that Long Beach had the 800 LCM back in 1975 but Wikipedia list it as USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_4_%C3%97_200_metres_freestyle_relay
Amazing! Interesting to see there have been a few training groups that are *that* strong
The slowest split is 23.4 and it included a 23.0 LEADOFF from Kromo AND a 22.8 anchor from Heemskerk…wow