World Aquatics Drops 400 Mixed Free Relay from Events List
World Aquatics has aligned the event slates at the World Aquatics Championships and the Olympics by dropping the 400 mixed free relay.
The change appears in the most recent World Aquatics Competition Regulations, dated Feb. 2026 (page 52 of this pdf). The regulations show the “mixed relay” events for the World Aquatics Championships as included only the 4x100m medley. The 25-meter World Championships will still include a mixed 200 freestyle and a mixed 200 medley relay in addition to the mixed 400 medley relay.
The regulations will next factor in at the 2026 World Short-Course Championships in Beijing later this year before the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest.
Source: World Aquatics Competition Regulations, in force as from February 2026 (page 52)
The changes mean that both the Olympics – with the addition of 50-meter strokes for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles – and long-course Worlds feature 20 men’s and 20 women’s events with one mixed event.
The mixed free relay was first adopted at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, alongside the 400 mixed medley relay. The latter includes considerably more strategy in how to optimize strokes.
Only the mixed medley relay was added to the Olympic docket, debuting at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. The mixed free relay was never on the Olympic events list.
The United States won gold at the first three installments of the mixed 400 free relay, in 2015, 2017 and 2019, before winning what appears to be the last title in 2025. In between, Australia won the 2022 and 2023 races with China taking the crown in 2024.
The U.S. won medals in each of the seven installments, with a silver and two bronze. Canada has two bronze and a silver, the Dutch two silvers. Eight countries have won the 21 total medals, including the Neutral Athletes from Russia taking silver in Singapore.
