Swimming in London's Aquatic Center, the U.S. women's 4x100m medley relay team set a new world record in winning a gold medal, with Allison Schmitt swimming freestyle to anchor a relay that finished two seconds ahead of the competition, at 3:52.05.
All four members of the women's relay team had previously won gold in their events: Dana Vollmer (butterfly), Missy Franklin (backstroke), Rebecca Soni (breaststroke), and Schmitt.
The victory gave Franklin, 17, four gold medals and one bronze in the London 2012 Games.
Update at 4:20 p.m. ET. We had to duck away from this post to get the news of Michael Phelps and the U.S. men's medley relay out there, so here are more details on the women's relay:
Franklin finished the first 50 meters in second position, but took over before tagging the wall for Soni. It must be a coach's dream to have a world record-setter passes off to an Olympic gold medalist — and that happened when Vollmer tagged the wall to send Schmitt into the water to finish the race.
Australia won the silver medal, and Japan won the bronze.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
