Pan Pacific Championships, Night Four Finals: American Women Maintain Medley Relay Winning Streak in Blowout
For four consecutive years, the United States women have finished off the summer’s major international competition with dominant performance in the 400 medley relay, breaking world records at the Paris Olympics and last year’s World Championships. Make it five thanks to the latest title at the Pan Pacific Championships.
However, this relay looked much different than the squads that dipped under the 3:50 barrier each of the past two years. Only Gretchen Walsh maintained her place as the butterflyer on all three relays. Backstroker Katharine Berkoff and breaststroker McKenzie Siroky were making their debut on the A-team following wins in their respective 100-meter events at Pan Pacs while Kate Douglass shifted from breaststroke in 2025 to freestyle this year.
Still, this one was no contest, with the Americans leading throughout and swimming the fastest split on each stroke. Berkoff led off in 58.35, slower than her time from the individual event but almost eight tenths better than Australia’s Iona Anderson. Siroky then followed up with a 1:05.07 breaststroke leg, ballooning the lead to more than two seconds, and Walsh recorded a 54.78 split, slower than her individual world record of 54.33 but the fastest relay split in history.
Douglass split 52.23 on the way home to seal the deal. Her split more than a second slower than her 51.01 anchoring the mixed 400 medley relay on night one, potentially costing the team a shot at the world record, but the effort was plenty commendable given that Douglass was swimming her fifth race of a historic day. Earlier, she broke the world record in the 50 free in both prelims and finals, and she also claimed silver in the 200 breast.
The Americans’ final time was 3:50.43, more than two seconds under the Pan Pacs record set by Australia in 2018. This is the fourth-fastest 400 medley relay ever, and no other country has ever been quicker, with the U.S. notching quicker times in 2019, 2024 and 2025.
Australia’s team of Anderson, Ella Ramsay, Alex Perkins and Meg Harris grabbed silver in 3:55.09. Harris, the 100 free winner at this meet as well as at the Commonwealth Games last month, came home in 52.61 to pull away. China’s Wan Letian, Tang Qianting, Yu Yiting and Cheng Yujie secured bronze in 3:56.33. Tang and Yu both won individual golds this week, Tang in the 50 breast and Yu earlier Saturday evening in the 200 IM. Both produced on their splits, Tang going 1:05.70 for breaststroke and Yu 56.49 on fly.
Canada got a 52.57 anchor split from Taylor Ruck on the way to a fourth-place finish, but that was not enough to overhaul China and reach the podium. Summer McIntosh handled butterfly duties for Canada but ended up fading to a split of 58.36. Further back in the field, 35-year-old Japanese breaststroker Satomi Suzuki shined with a 1:05.10 split, second-quickest in the race and just three hundredths behind Siroky. Japan ended up finishing in 3:59.65.
