USA Uses Heavy Hitters For 4x100m Mixed Medley World Record

The United States used Ryan Murphy, Kevin Cordes, Kelsi Worrell, and Mallory Comerford in prelims of the 4x100 meter mixed medley relay to break the world record in 3:40.28 Wednesday morning at the 2017 FINA World Championships.

Jul 26, 2017 by Maclin Simpson

USA Uses Heavy Hitters For 4x100m Mixed Medley World Record

2017 FINA World Championships

July 23-30, 2017
Budapest, Hungary
Dagály Aquatics Arena
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In somewhat of a surprising move, Team USA decided to go with arguably its strongest lineup for prelims of the 4x100m mixed medley relay at the FINA World Championships on Wednesday morning. Strongest is relative, however, as the United States could have gone with a number of combinations to achieve the same result. The Americans' relay of Ryan Murphy (backstroke), Kevin Cordes (breaststroke), Kelsi Worrell (butterfly), and Mallory Comerford (freestyle) consisted of the fastest U.S. swimmers in each respective leg -- a strategy typically not used for prelims relays.

It was apparent from the beginning they were gunning for the world record -- which they secured in 3:40.28, demolishing Great Britain's global standard of 3:41.71 from 2015.

Check out the comparative splits below:

Great Britain (2015)	United States (2017)
Chris Walker-Hebborn -- 52.94	Ryan Murphy -- 52.34
Adam Peaty -- 57.98	Kevin Cordes -- 58.95
Siobhan Marie O'Connor -- 57.02	Kelsi Worrell -- 56.17
Fran Halsall -- 53.77	Mallory Comerford -- 52.82
*TIME -- 3:41.71*	*TIME -- 3:40.28 (WR)*

Those are four very strong splits from Team USA. Most notably, Ryan Murphy's time of 52.34 was faster than his 52.59 bronze medal performance from Tuesday night and even faster than the 52.44 that Xu Jiayu of China swam to win the gold medal. It was clear Murphy was not pleased with his swim on Tuesday night and wanted to make a statement Wednesday morning.

Say what you will about the mixed relays -- as confusing as they may be to watch -- but along with Murphy now, Cordes, Worrell, and Comerford can all call themselves world-record holders. Pretty cool.

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