The women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

took place on 3–4 August at the London Aquatics Centre in

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The U.S. women's team solidified their triumph to demolish a new world record and to recapture their Olympic title after twelve years. Leading from the start, the fearsome foursome of

Missy Franklin Melissa Franklin Johnson (born May 10, 1995) is an American former competition swimmer and five-time Olympic gold medalist. She formerly held the world record in the 200-meter backstroke (long course). As a member of the U.S. national swim team ...

(58.50), Rebecca Soni (1:04.82),

Dana Vollmer Dana Whitney Vollmer (born November 13, 1987) is a former American competition swimmer, five-time Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal as a member of the winning United States ...

(55.48), and

Allison Schmitt Allison Rodgers Schmitt (born June 7, 1990) is an American competition Swimming (sport), swimmer who specializes in Freestyle swimming, freestyle events. She is a four-time Olympic Games, Olympian and a ten-time Olympic medalist. In her Olympic ...

(53.25) put together a perfect ending with a stunning gold-medal time in 3:52.05 to shave off China's global standard by 14-hundredths of a second from the 2009 World Championships at the peak of the high-tech bodysuit era. Australia's

Emily Seebohm Emily Jane Seebohm, OAM (born 5 June 1992) is an Australian swimmer and television personality. She has appeared at four Olympic Games between 2008 and 2021; and won three Olympic gold medals, five world championship gold medals and seven Commo ...

(59.01), Leisel Jones (1:06.06),

Alicia Coutts Alicia Jayne Coutts, (born 14 September 1987) is an Australian competitive medley, butterfly and freestyle swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (New Delhi). Sh ...

(56.41), and

Melanie Schlanger Melanie Renée Schlanger, Order of Australia, OAM (born 31 August 1986), also known by her married name Melanie Wright, is an Australian freestyle swimming, freestyle swimmer. Melanie first represented Australia at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimmin ...

(52.54) trailed behind their formidable rivals by a couple of seconds, but managed to take home a magnificent silver in 3:54.02. Pulling off a second-place finish, Jones also matched Ian Thorpe for the most medals by an Australian swimmer in her fourth straight Olympics with a remarkable overall tally of nine (three golds, five silver, and one bronze). Japan's

Aya Terakawa (born November 12, 1984) is a retired Japanese backstroke swimmer; she announced her retirement from competitions in early December 2013. She is married to former swimmer Daisuke Hosokawa. Major achievements * 2001 World Aquatics Championships ...

(58.99),

Satomi Suzuki is a Japanese swimmer. She won a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke event and a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as a silver in the women's 4 x 100 m medley relay for Japan. She also swam in the ...

(1:05.96), Yuka Kato (57.36), and

Haruka Ueda is a Japanese freestyle swimmer. She married swimmer Kazuya Kaneda in 2014. Major achievements * 2005 World Championships – 200m freestyle 22nd (2:01.65) * 2007 World Championships A world championship is generally an international com ...

(53.42) ended on a spectacular fashion with a bronze medal in 3:55.73, holding off the robust Russian quartet of Anastasia Zuyeva (59.13),

Yuliya Yefimova Yuliya Andreyevna Yefimova (russian: Юлия Андреевна Ефимова, also romanized Efimova; born 3 April 1992) is a Russian competitive swimmer. She is the Russian record holder in the 200 metre individual medley (short course), ...

(1:04.98),

Irina Bespalova Irina Nikolayevna Bespalova (born May 31, 1981) is a female butterfly swimmer from Russia, who represented her native country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a ...

(58.59), and

Veronika Popova Veronika Andreyevna Andrusenko (née Popova) (russian: Вероника Андреевна Андрусенко (Попова); born 20 January 1991) is a Russian competitive swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed for the national ...

(53.33) by exactly three-tenths of a second (0.30), a fourth-place time in 3:56.03. Outside the podium, China's Zhao Jing (59.86),

Ji Liping Ji Liping (; born December 9, 1988, Shanghai) is a Chinese swimmer. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in the 200 m breaststroke and the medley relay. See also * References External links * at gz2010.cn Living people 1988 ...

(1:06.94),

Lu Ying Lu Ying (陆滢, Lù Yíng, born 22 January 1989) is a Chinese competitive swimmer. She competed for China at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , ...

(56.80), and

Tang Yi Tang Yi (; born 8 January 1993) is a Chinese competitive swimmer. Specializing in the freestyle, she swam for China at the 2008 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the 100 metre freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was born in S ...

(52.81) could not produce a similar stellar performance in the medley relay with a fifth-place finish in 3:56.41, while the Dutch foursome of

Sharon van Rouwendaal Sharon van Rouwendaal (born 9 September 1993) is a Dutch swimmer and the Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She grew up in Soest, and later moved to France with her parents. In 2009 ...

(1:00.72),

Moniek Nijhuis Moniek Nijhuis (born 20 March 1988) is a Dutch swimmer who specializes in breaststroke. After she had been a professional swimmer, under the guidance of Martin Truijens, for several years she took a break from professional swimming after she mis ...

(1:06.74),

Inge Dekker Inge Dekker (born 18 August 1985) is a Dutch former competitive swimmer who specialised in butterfly and freestyle events. She won the bronze medal with the Dutch women's 4×100-metre freestyle relay team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, ...

(56.91), and star Ranomi Kromowidjojo (52.91), who captured another sprint freestyle title an hour earlier, claimed a distant sixth spot in 3:57.28. Denmark (3:57.76) and Great Britain (3:59.46) rounded out the championship finale.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. The following records were established during the competition:

Results

Heats

Final

References

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay 4 × 100 metre medley relay 2012 in women's swimming Women's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics