Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay

Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Medalists
Emily Seebohm Leisel Jones Jessicah Schipper Lisbeth Trickett Tarnee White* Felicity Galvez* Shayne Reese*   Australia   Natalie Coughlin Rebecca Soni Christine Magnuson Dara Torres Margaret Hoelzer* Megan Jendrick* Elaine Breeden* Kara Lynn Joyce*   United States   Zhao Jing Sun Ye Zhou Yafei Pang Jiaying Xu Tianlongzi*   China
«2004	2012»

Swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The women's 4×100 metre medley relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 15th (qualification) and 17 August (final) at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre. This swimming event used medley swimming as a relay. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each of the four swimmers completed two lengths of the pool. Each swimmer used a different stroke. The first on each team swam backstroke, the second used the breaststroke, the third swam butterfly stroke, and the final swimmer used freestyle (restricted to not allow any of the first three strokes to be used, though nearly all swimmers use front crawl regardless).

The first swimmer had to touch the wall before the next could leave the starting block, and so forth; timing of the starts was thus important.

Two heats were held, with each containing the maximum number of teams (eight). The heat in which a team competed did not formally matter for advancement, as the teams with the top eight times from the entire field qualified for the final; there, they all competed in a single final heat to earn final placements. A team could use different swimmers in the final than had swum in the heats.

16 nations competed at this event. These 16 nations consisted on the 12 best placed teams at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships plus the 4 best times after the qualifying period.

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Australia (AUS) Emily Seebohm (1:00.79) Leisel Jones (1:04.94) Jessicah Schipper (57.18) Libby Lenton (52.83)	3:55.74	Melbourne, Australia	31 March 2007	[1]
Olympic record	Australia (AUS) Giaan Rooney (1:01.18) Leisel Jones (1:06.50) Petria Thomas (56.67) Jodie Henry (52.97)	3:57.32	Athens, Greece	21 August 2004	-

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
August 17	Final	Emily Seebohm Leisel Jones Jessicah Schipper Libby Trickett	Australia	3:52.69	OR	WR

Qualification summary

Pos	NOC	Qualification
1	United States	FINA World Championships
2	Australia
3	Japan
4	China
5	Germany
6	Sweden
7	Russia
8	Great Britain
9	France
10	Italy
11	Canada
12	Ukraine
13	South Africa	4:03.62	4 best remaining teams
14	Netherlands	4:04.41
15	Brazil	4:04.88
16	Spain	4:05.98

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	NOC	Name	Time	Notes
1	4	United States	Margaret Hoelzer 29.12 / 59.29 Megan Jendrick 31.04 / 1:07.17 Elaine Breeden 27.03 / 58.59 Kara Lynn Joyce 25.79 / 54.10	3:59.15	Q
2	5	China	Tianlongzi Xu 29.94 / 1:01.13 Ye Sun 31.23 / 1:06.85 Yafei Zhou 26.32 / 56.94 Jiaying Pang 25.86 / 54.29	3:59.21	Q, AS
3	3	Japan	Hanae Ito 29.50 / 1:00.34 Asami Kitagawa 31.23 / 1:07.33 Yuka Kato 26.43 / 57.69 Haruka Ueda 26.32 / 54.55	3:59.91	Q
4	8	Germany	Antje Buschschulte 29.44 / 1:00.51 Sarah Poewe 31.89 / 1:08.95 Daniela Samulski 27.32 / 59.78 Britta Steffen 25.44 / 53.29	4:02.53
5	2	Brazil	Fabiola Molina 29.67 / 1:00.71 Tatiane Sakemi 33.17 / 1:10.42 Gabriella Silva 25.91 / 56.97 Tatiana Barbosa 26.11 / 54.51	4:02.61
6	1	France	Alexianne Castel 30.06 / 1:01.28 Sophie De Ronchi 31.56 / 1:08.75 Aurore Mongel 27.34 / 58.64 Alena Popchanka 26.32 / 54.28	4:02.95
7	6	Netherlands	Femke Heemskerk 30.66 / 1:02.97 Jolijn van Valkengoed 32.47 / 1:10.85 Inge Dekker 26.08 / 57.41 Ranomi Kromowidjojo 25.66 / 53.51	4:04.74
8	7	Spain	Nina Alexandrovna Zhivanevskaya 29.80 / 1:00.77 Mireia Belmonte 33.19 / 1:10.46 Angela San Juan 27.94 / 1:00.08 Maria Fuster 26.33 / 55.09	4:06.40

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	NOC	Name	Time	Notes
1	4	Australia	Emily Seebohm 29.15 / 59.95 Tarnee White 30.36 / 1:06.81 Felicity Galvez 26.45 / 56.82 Shayne Reese 25.87/ 54.36	3:57.94	Q
2	5	Great Britain	Gemma Spofforth 29.63 / 1:00.33 Kate Haywood 31.15 / 1:08.00 Jemma Lowe 26.29 / 57.34 Francesca Halsall 25.56 / 53.47	3:59.14	Q, ER
3	3	Russia	Kseniya Moskvina 29.78 / 1:01.05 Yuliya Yefimova 30.73 / 1:06.45 Natalia Sutyagina 26.93 / 58.31 Anastasia Aksenova 25.48 / 53.85	3:59.66	Q
4	7	Sweden	Sarah Sjöström 30.32 / 1:02.48 Joline Höstman‎ 31.93 / 1:08.48 Anna-Karin Kammerling 25.78 / 57.57 Josefin Lillhage 25.55 / 53.59	4:02.12	Q
5	2	Canada	Julia Wilkinson 29.91 / 1:00.90 Annamay Pierse 31.69 / 1:07.22 Audrey Lacroix 27.67 / 59.84 Erica Morningstar 25.50 / 54.17	4:02.13	Q
6	6	South Africa	Melissa Corfe 30.57 / 1:02.62 Suzaan van Biljon 31.70 / 1:07.90 Mandy Loots 27.28 / 58.76 Lize-Mari Retief 25.56 / 54.92	4:04.20
7	8	Italy	Romina Armellini 30.91 / 1:02.49 Roberta Panara 31.74 / 1:08.36 Ilaria Bianchi 26.76 / 58.09 Federica Pellegrini 26.88 / 55.99	4:04.93
8	1	Ukraine	Iryna Amshennikova 30.16 / 1:03.63 Yuliya Pidlisna 32.21 / 1:09.53 Kateryna Zubkova 27.17 / 59.65 Darya Stepanyuk 26.40 / 55.81	4:08.62

Final

Leisel Jones' breaststroke split was the fastest in the race by 1.37 seconds and gave Australia a decisive lead.

Rank	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
	4	Australia	Emily Seebohm 28.91 / 59.33 Leisel Jones 30.38 / 1:04.58 Jessicah Schipper 26.10 / 56.25 Lisbeth Trickett 25.19 / 52.53	3:52.69	WR
	3	United States	Natalie Coughlin 28.39 / 58.94 Rebecca Soni 30.88 / 1:05.95 Christine Magnuson 26.09 / 56.14 Dara Torres 24.97 / 52.27	3:53.30	AM
	6	China	Zhao Jing 29.12 / 59.56 Ye Sun 31.02 / 1:06.75 Yafei Zhou 26.29 / 57.40 Jiaying Pang 25.04 / 52.40	3:56.11	AS
4	5	Great Britain	Gemma Spofforth 29.04 / 59.05 Kate Haywood 31.21 / 1:07.51 Jemma Lowe 26.10 / 58.13 Francesca Halsall 24.61 / 52.81	3:57.50	ER
5	2	Russia	Anastasia Zuyeva 29.05 / 59.16 Yuliya Yefimova 30.30 / 1:06.46 Natalia Sutyagina 26.70 / 58.09 Anastasia Aksenova 25.37 / 54.13	3:57.84
6	7	Japan	Reiko Nakamura 29.04 / 59.74 Asami Kitagawa 31.20 / 1:07.04 Yuka Kato 26.53 / 58.17 Haruka Ueda 26.39 / 54.59	3:59.54
7	8	Canada	Julia Wilkinson 30.24 / 1:01.35 Annamay Pierse 31.49 / 1:06.91 Audrey Lacroix 27.39 / 59.01 Erica Morningstar 25.72 / 54.08	4:01.35
=	1	Sweden	Sarah Sjöström 30.42 / 1:02.63 Joline Höstman‎ 31.80 / 1:08.11 Anna-Karin Kammerling 25.81 / 58.51 Josefin Lillhage DSQ (overlong false start)	DSQ

^[2]

• Q = Qualified, DSQ = Disqualified
• WR = World Record, OR = Olympic Record
• AF = African Record, AM = Americas Record, AS = Asian Record, ER = European Record, OC = Oceania Record
• CR = Commonwealth Record, NR = National Record

References