Pan Pacific Championships Day One Finals: Mixed 400 Medley Relay
One of the most fun events at the Pan Pacific Championships is the mixed medley relay.
It blends the countries, strokes and men and women into one sensational race full of nation pride.
It is also a chess match of which swimmers should swim which strokes – and could just lead to a world record.
Will Modglin, Van Mathias, Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass threw down the first world record of the meet with a time of 3:36.70.
“It means a lot. As we were sitting for two hours, we kind of threw out the idea of breaking a world record. I don’t know if anyone thought we would do that tonight. I got to give it my all at the end,” Douglass said. “I knew I had a really fast split in me and I was confident that if I could do that, we could break the record.”
Modglin gave the U.S. an early lead on the backstroke leg. Mathias then had the breaststroke leg in 57.3 as the Americans went with a two men, then two women lineup. Japan closed in as the third leg dove in.
“I am speechless,” Mathias said. “I never knew what it would be like to win a world record … I guess it feels like this.”
Walsh dove in for the butterfly leg with the lead and went a 54.99. as Australia gave chase with Kate Douglass and Meg Harris anchoring.
Douglass had enough to get the U.S. to the wall in 3:36.70. She finished in 51.01.
“One of the benefits of being the anchor is watching my teammates kill it and feel the energy of the crowd,” Douglass said.
Australia set the meet record in 2018 at 3:38.91, while the U.S. set the world record (3:37.43) at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“We were just trying to keep the energy really high. We knew we could and it was all really exciting,” Walsh said.
The Splits
Pan Pacs 2026 (3:36.70)
Will Modglin 53.40 – Van Mathias 57.30 – Gretchen Walsh 54.99 – Kate Douglass 51.01
Paris 2024 Olympics (3:37.43)
Ryan Murphy 52.08 – Nic Fink 58.29 – Gretchen Walsh 55.18 – Torri Huske 51.88
“I am just a little speechless. I feel like I have been watching Gretchen and Kate do this for a long time and breaking a world record with them is such an honor,” Modglin said. ;
