What you need to know about swimming’s most absurd and thrilling race

Australia has replicated its performance from the Tokyo Olympics by picking up a bronze medal behind the USA and China in the mixed 4x100-metre medley relay.

Kaylee McKeown (backstroke), Joshua Yong (breaststroke), Matt Temple (butterfly) and Mollie O’Callaghan trailed early, given the USA and China led with men for the first two legs, but came home strongly to touch the wall in an Australian record time of 3:38.76.

The mixed medley is a bizarre race, but one with more tactics than meets the eye.

Selection is vitally important and so too is the order in which teams roll out their swimmers for races that generally have lots of lead changes given the disparity in personal best times between men and women.

Here’s how the race played out and what you might not have noticed.

How it works and why selection is key

The mixed medley is the only race on the Olympic swimming program where men and women compete against each other.

Countries select two men and two women to swim 100 metres of each stroke in this order: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.

When the race was first introduced ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, teams didn’t take it as seriously as they do now. For example, the USA picked a female breaststroker, Lydia Jacoby. The team bombed out and finished fifth. It is now widely accepted that teams must pick a male breaststroker, given the difference in times is greater between men and women, due to longer time in the water.

As the table shows, all eight teams selected breaststrokers for the second leg. Each country also wanted a female freestyler to anchor the team home.

Australia doesn’t have a world-class male backstroker, so were always going to pick McKeown. Yong has been swimming better this week than Sam Williamson in the breaststroke, while Matt Temple is Australia’s best butterfly swimmer, despite his disappointing seventh finish in his individual 100-metre event. That left Mollie O’Callaghan to bring it home.

Statistically, when you combine all the best times, Australia picked the right team. The next fastest would have been a McKeown-Yong-Ben Armbruster-O’Callaghan combination or a McKeown-Yong-Temple-Shayna Jack combination.

The early lead in the first leg

McKeown is the world’s fastest female backstroker – and arguably the greatest of all-time after her 100m and 200m gold medals in Paris – but was behind early as the USA’s Ryan Murphy and China’s Xu Jiayu zipped away.

The first lap of a mixed medley relay is basically a gulf between males and females. In this case, four leading, four trailing. It can be deceiving on television and there is often a double take among fans given the big gap so early in the race.

McKeown’s backstroke split of 57.9 was the fastest of all the women in the field, but left Australia in fifth place because four men were ahead of her. However, McKeown’s relay time was 0.57 seconds slower than her effort in the 100-metre event.

Keep in mind, McKeown had just finished a 200-metre individual medley final. At this stage of the race, things were looking good for Australia, but for them to have any chance of victory, they needed McKeown to be mid to low 57s.

“I love these guys, it takes a mountain to get here in the first place, but you guys have absolutely pushed me along the line,” McKeown said. “When I walked into marshalling I just felt the embrace from them.”

The second leg – where the dynamic changes

Yong dived in for his breaststroke leg with nearly six seconds to make up on the USA and China. France and Japan were also ahead, but don’t be deceived – they don’t have the depth of a country such as Australia. There is also merit in mixed medley relays in rolling out two males to begin so they can swim in clear water.

Yong had to be patient before he dived in, as some swimmers fall into the trap of wanting to make up ground but get disqualified for an early changeover.

The young Australian’s stroke pace is fast. Although his split time of 58.43 was impressive, it is slower than China’s Qin Haiyang (57.82) and USA’s Nic Fink (58.29). Qin gets China in front of the USA for the only time in the race.

Keep in mind that Yong’s split time of 58.43 is quicker than it would be in an individual 100m race because reaction times aren’t factored in and swimmers in a relay can get a jumping start.

A huge gap to narrow

As the clip shows, Japan have dropped off and it emerges as a race between the USA and China with Australia still lurking in fifth at the halfway mark.

It is a massive gap for Australia to make up and given Temple is not an Olympic gold medallist, it was always going to be a difficult task.

Temple makes his move

In training, Temple chases a rubber chicken through the pool. In this case, he is trying to mow down two women – America’s Gretchen Walsh, the world record holder in the 100m butterfly, and China’s Zhang Yufei.

Temple starts to make ground and narrows the lead. The USA have a six-second advantage, but Temple cuts it to 1.2 seconds. Walsh’s split of 55.18 is very impressive, but she looks like she’s being mowed down.

Mollie in with a fighting chance

O’Callaghan finished fourth in her individual 100m race and wanted revenge. In two laps of freestyle, 1.2 seconds is still a lot to make up. The hardest thing for O’Callaghan in this instance was that she had to swim through choppy water.

Every team has a female swimmer in the water during the last leg, so the 300-metre mark is the most accurate gauge so far on how the race has panned out.

Temple’s split of 50.42, when you factor in a relay start, is about on par with his individual performance earlier in the night.

A powerful finish for bronze

O’Callaghan gave it her best but it wasn’t enough, as Australia finished in third. USA break the world record in a time of 3:37.43 and avenge their shock fifth place in Tokyo.

O’Callaghan’s freestyle split of 52.01 is slower than Torri Huske (51.88) and Yang Junxuan (51.96).

“I’ll always give it a try,” O’Callaghan said. “I had a disappointment in the 100 free. I just wanted to do my best for my country. It was my first time doing a mixed medley, it was quite cool and an honour. I had to swim my heart out.”

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