Breaking Down Races for World Championship Gold in 400 Medley Relays

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BARCELONA, Spain, August 4. THE 400 medley relays will conclude the competition at the FINA world championships, and the United States is favored to win the men’s and women’s races — at least on paper.

The American women look to win their event by almost two seconds over Australia, but the USA men’s team could find themselves in five-team battle.

Below are times calculated for each medley relay swimmer for the men’s teams representing the United States, Australia, Russia, France and Japan, and times for the American women and Australian women. Unless specified, the times listed are for swims done in the championship finals of the respective individual events at the world championships. These times do not account for relay takeovers on breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, unless they were done in relays.

USA men
Matt Grevers, backstroke: 52.93
Kevin Cordes, breaststroke: 59.78 (semifinals)
Ryan Lochte, butterfly: 51.48 (semifinals)
Nathan Adrian, freestyle: 47.84
Total time: 3:32.03

France men
Camille Lacourt, backstroke: 53.51
Giacomo Perez-Dortona, breaststroke: 59.95
Jeremy Stravius, butterfly: 51.96 (relay prelims)
Fabien Gilot, freestyle: 46.90 (400 free relay final)
Total time: 3:32.32

Australia men
Ashley Delaney, backstroke: 53.55
Christian Sprenger, breaststroke: 58.79
Tom D’Orsogna, butterfly: 52.82 (100 fly prelims)
James Magnussen, freestyle: 47.71
Total time: 3:32.87

Japan men
Ryosuke Irie, backstroke: 53.29
Kosuke Kitajima, breaststroke: 59.78 (semifinals)
Takuro Fujii, butterfly: 52.18 (relay prelims)
Shinri Shioura, freestyle: 48.30 (400 medley relay prelims)
Total time: 3:33.57

Russia men
Vladimir Morozov, backstroke: 54.67 (relay prelims)
Kirill Strelnikov, breaststroke: 59.84 (relay)
Evgeny Korotyshkin, butterfly: 51.57 or Nikolay Skvortsov, butterfly: 51.43
Andrey Grechin, freestyle: 48.09 (relay final leadoff)
Total time: 3:34.16

USA women
Missy Franklin, backstroke: 58.42
Jessica Hardy, breaststroke: 1:05.52
Dana Vollmer, butterfly: 57.24
Megan Romano, freestyle: 52.60 (400 free relay final)
Total time: 3:53.78

Australia women
Emily Seebohm, backstroke: 58.79 (400 medley relay prelim leadoff)
Sally Foster, breaststroke: 1:07.59 (semifinals)
Alicia Coutts, butterfly: 56.97
Cate Campbell, freestyle: 52.33 (relay leadoff)
Total time: 3:55.68

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