Paris Olympics: U.S. swimming streak in men’s medley relay ends, team settles for silver

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PARIS — The U.S. fell to China in Sunday’s 4×100-meter men’s medley relay, and relinquished a six-decade-long Olympic streak that had come to represent American supremacy in swimming.

The U.S. team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel and Hunter Armstrong finished second, and took silver, but couldn’t catch China’s world record holder Pan Zhanle, who raced ahead of Armstrong and France’s Florent Manaudou over the final 100.

China finished in 3:27.46, the U.S. came home in 3:28.01 and France took bronze (3:28.38).

Medley relays were introduced to the Olympic program way back in 1960. Back in those relatively prehistoric times, a U.S. foursome won the inaugural men’s event by nearly seven seconds. And their predecessors had not lost it since. Their margins shrunk. Their challengers changed. But they had won the race without fail for 60-plus years, save for the boycotted 1980 Olympics.

They have held the world record continuously since 1971, too. A team featuring Dressel and Murphy had lowered the record in Tokyo. So the latest foursome entered Paris 2024 as de facto favorites to further the tradition.

Instead, they let it slip. They were outside the top three after the backstroke and breaststroke legs. Dressel brought them close to level at the 300-meter mark. But Armstrong was no match for Pan.

And an underwhelming meet for the U.S. men ended with more disappointment.

France, meanwhile, took bronze, giving Léon Marchand his fifth medal of the 2024 Olympics.