The men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 15 and 17 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

Since the event's inception in 1960, the U.S. men's team dominated the race from the start to demolish a new world record, to defend their title, and to wrap up the greatest performance in Olympic history for Michael Phelps. Joining Aaron Peirsol (53.16), Brendan Hansen (59.27), and Jason Lezak (46.76), Phelps delivered a butterfly split of 50.15 to maintain a leading pace and claim a historic gold for the Americans with a world-record time of 3:29.34, shaving 1.34 seconds off their standard from Athens in 2004. By capturing his eighth gold, Phelps also eclipsed Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven for the most in a single Games, raising his career total to 16 medals (14 golds and 2 bronze).

The Aussie foursome of Hayden Stoeckel (53.80), Brenton Rickard (58.56), Andrew Lauterstein (51.03), and Eamon Sullivan (46.65) trailed behind their greatest rivals in the pool by exactly seven-tenths of a second (0.70), but took home silver in an Oceanian record of 3:30.04. Meanwhile, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima fueled the field on the breaststroke leg with a split of 58.07 to deliver the foursome of Junichi Miyashita (53.87), Takuro Fujii (50.89), and Hisayoshi Sato (48.35) a bronze-medal time in 3:31.18, worthy enough for an Asian record.

Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin (53.36), Roman Sloudnov (59.45), Yevgeny Korotyshkin (51.62), and Yevgeny Lagunov (47.49) missed the podium by almost three-fourths of a second (0.75) with a fourth-place effort in 3:31.92, while Daniel Bell (54.52), Glenn Snyders (59.46), Corney Swanepoel (52.12), and Cameron Gibson (47.99) established a New Zealand record of 3:33.39 to claim the fifth spot in the final, holding off the British quartet of Liam Tancock (54.69), Chris Cook (59.65), Michael Rock (52.02), and Simon Burnett (47.33) by 0.30 seconds, a national record of 3:33.69. South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg (54.69), Cameron van der Burgh (59.40), Lyndon Ferns (51.39), and Darian Townsend (48.22) finished closer to the Brits by a hundredth of a second (0.01) with a seventh-place time of 3:33.70. As the entire field came to a finish in the pool, Italy was disqualified from the race because of an early relay takeoff on the final exchange by freestyle anchor Filippo Magnini.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 17 Final Aaron Peirsol (53.16)Brendan Hansen (59.27)Michael Phelps (50.15)Jason Lezak (46.76) 3:29.34

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Nationality Name Time Notes 1 2 4 Matt Grevers (53.59) Mark Gangloff (1:00.35) Ian Crocker (50.85) Garrett Weber-Gale (47.96) 3:32.75 Q 2 1 4 Ashley Delaney (53.74) Christian Sprenger (59.95) Adam Pine (51.66) Matt Targett (47.41) 3:32.76 Q, OC 3 1 5 Junichi Miyashita (54.29) Kosuke Kitajima (58.79) Takuro Fujii (50.86) Hisayoshi Sato (48.87) 3:32.81 Q, AS 4 2 3 Arkady Vyatchanin (53.86) Roman Sloudnov (59.63) Nikolay Skvortsov (51.62) Andrey Grechin (48.48) 3:33.59 Q, EU 5 1 6 Liam Tancock (54.67) Chris Cook (59.40) Michael Rock (51.99) Simon Burnett (47.77) 3:33.83 Q 6 2 8 Daniel Bell (54.52) Glenn Snyders (59.46) Corney Swanepoel (52.12) Cameron Gibson (47.99) 3:34.09 Q 7 2 6 Gerhard Zandberg (54.19) Cameron van der Burgh (59.68) Lyndon Ferns (52.33) Darian Townsend (47.96) 3:34.16 Q, AF 8 2 7 Mirco di Tora (54.05) Alessandro Terrin (1:01.25) Mattia Nalesso (51.96) Filippo Magnini (47.06) 3:34.32 Q 9 2 1 Benjamin Stasiulis (55.46) Hugues Duboscq (59.29) Christophe Lebon (51.97) Fabien Gilot (48.06) 3:34.78 10 2 5 Jake Tapp (55.16) Mike Brown (1:00.98) Joe Bartoch (52.58) Brent Hayden (46.84) 3:35.56 11 1 2 Simon Sjödin (55.27) Jonas Andersson (1:01.22) Lars Frölander (51.13) Jonas Persson (48.21) 3:35.83 NR 12 2 2 Gordan Kožulj (54.91) Vanja Rogulj (1:01.30) Mario Todorović (51.52) Duje Draganja (49.96) 3:37.69 13 1 1 Răzvan Florea (54.81) Valentin Preda (1:01.41) Ioan Gherghel (52.44) Norbert Trandafir (49.34) 3:38.00 14 1 3 Guilherme Guido (54.78) Felipe França Silva (1:02.06) Kaio de Almeida (53.31) Nicolas Oliveira (48.51) 3:38.66 15 1 7 Oleksandr Isakov (56.66) Valeriy Dymo (1:00.61) Sergiy Breus (52.38) Yuriy Yegoshin (49.11) 3:38.76 16 1 8 Pavel Sankovich (55.11) Viktar Vabishchevich (1:01.89) Yevgeniy Lazuka (52.63) Stanislau Neviarouski (49.76) 3:39.39

Final Rank Lane Nationality Name Time Time behind Notes 4 Aaron Peirsol (53.16) Brendan Hansen (59.27) Michael Phelps (50.15) Jason Lezak (46.76) 3:29.34 5 Hayden Stoeckel (53.80) Brenton Rickard (58.56) Andrew Lauterstein (51.03) Eamon Sullivan (46.65) 3:30.04 0.70 OC 3 Junichi Miyashita (53.87) Kosuke Kitajima (58.07) Takuro Fujii (50.89) Hisayoshi Sato (48.35) 3:31.18 1.84 AS 4 6 Arkady Vyatchanin (53.36) Roman Sloudnov (59.45) Yevgeny Korotyshkin (51.62) Yevgeny Lagunov (47.49) 3:31.92 2.58 EU 5 7 Daniel Bell (54.74) Glenn Snyders (59.87) Corney Swanepoel (51.78) Cameron Gibson (47.00) 3:33.39 4.05 NR 6 2 Liam Tancock (54.69) Chris Cook (59.65) Michael Rock (52.02) Simon Burnett (47.33) 3:33.69 4.35 NR 7 1 Gerhard Zandberg (54.69) Cameron van der Burgh (59.40) Lyndon Ferns (51.39) Darian Townsend (48.22) 3:33.70 4.36 AF 8 Mirco di Tora (54.52) Loris Facci (1:00.55) Mattia Nalesso (52.26) Filippo Magnini

References

External links Official Olympic Report