For the first time in the history of the men’s 4×100 medley in which they competed at the Summer Olympics, the American men are not gold medalists.
The foursome of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel, and Hunter Armstrong could not keep up with China, winning silver in an event in which Team USA had won 10 consecutive gold medals.
China’s Jiayu Xu, Haiyang Qin, Jiajun Sun, and Zhanle Pan edged out the Americans by 0.55 seconds, completing a blistering run of 3:27.46 — just 0.68 seconds off of the world record set by the US at the previous Summer Games in Tokyo.
Following Fink’s 100 meters in the breaststroke, the Americans were in fourth before Caleb Dressel got them back into second place with a 49.41-second butterfly — the fastest of any of the eight teams in the race.
Armstrong, however, could not catch China’s Pan, who posted a 45.92-second run to clinch gold while the American completed his 100 meters at 47.19 seconds.
Since the 4×100 medley was introduced at the Olympics in 1960, the United States had won every single gold medal — 15 in total — in which they competed. The country boycotted the 1980 Summer Games.
For Dressel, this is his 10th career Olympic medal but his first non-gold. He has now won three medals at the 2024 Games, also taking gold in the 4x100m freestyle and the 4x100m mixed medley.
