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Men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Medalists
Aaron Peirsol Brendan Hansen Michael Phelps Jason Lezak Matt Grevers* Mark Gangloff* Ian Crocker* Garrett Weber-Gale*   United States   Hayden Stoeckel Brenton Rickard Andrew Lauterstein Eamon Sullivan Ashley Delaney* Christian Sprenger* Adam Pine* Matt Targett*   Australia   Junichi Miyashita Kosuke Kitajima Takuro Fujii Hisayoshi Sato   Japan
« 2004	2012»

Swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The men's 4×100 metre medley relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on August 15 (qualification) and August 17 (final) at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. This swimming event uses medley swimming as a relay. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each of the four swimmers completed two lengths of the pool, each using a different stroke. The first on each team used the backstroke, the second used the breaststroke, the third used the butterfly stroke, and the final swimmer used freestyle (restricted to not allow any of the first three strokes to be used, though nearly all swimmers use front crawl regardless).

The first swimmer must touch the wall before the next can leave the starting block, and so forth; timing of the starts is thus important.

Two heats are held, with each containing the maximum number of teams (eight). The heat in which a team competed does not formally matter for advancement, as the teams with the top eight times from the entire field qualifies for the final; there, they all compete in a single heat to earn final placements. A team can use different swimmers in the final than had swum in the heats; indeed the US and Australian teams used entirely different lineups for the final. All participants on the medal winning teams receive a medal whether they were in the finals or not, though only the athletes that swum the final will take part in the podium ceremony.

16 nations competed in this event. These 16 nations consisted of the 12 best placed teams at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships plus the 4 best times after the qualifying period.

The 4 x 100 medley was the last indoor swimming event contested at the 2008 Olympics. With the USA team's win, Michael Phelps earned his eighth gold medal at the Beijing games, breaking the record for most golds in a single games, previously held by another United States swimmer, Mark Spitz.

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Records

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

World record	United States (USA) Aaron Peirsol (53.45) Brendan Hansen (59.37) Ian Crocker (50.28) Jason Lezak (47.58)	3:30.68	Athens, Greece	21 August 2004	[1]
Olympic record	United States (USA) Aaron Peirsol (53.45) Brendan Hansen (59.37) Ian Crocker (50.28) Jason Lezak (47.58)	3:30.68	Athens, Greece	21 August 2004	[1]

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

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
August 17	Final	Aaron Peirsol Brendan Hansen Michael Phelps Jason Lezak	United States	3:29.34	OR	WR

Qualification summary

Pos	NOC	Qualification
1	Japan	FINA World Championships
2	Russia
3	South Africa
4	Australia
5	France
6	Great Britain
7	Italy
8	Romania
9	Brazil
10	Ukraine
11	New Zealand
12	Belarus
13	United States	3:34.37	4 best remaining teams
14	Canada	3:34.99
15	Croatia	3:36.32
16	Sweden	3:36.85

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
1	4	Australia	Ashley Delaney 53.74 Christian Sprenger 59.95 Adam Pine 51.66 Matt Targett 47.41	3:32.76	Q, OC
2	5	Japan	Junichi Miyashita 54.29 Kosuke Kitajima 58.79 Takuro Fujii 50.86 Hisayoshi Sato 48.87	3:32.81	Q, AS
3	6	Great Britain	Liam Tancock 54.67 Christopher Cook 59.40 Michael Rock 51.99 Simon Burnett 47.77	3:33.83	Q, ER
4	2	Sweden	Simon Sjödin 55.27 Jonas Andersson 1:01.22 Lars Frölander 51.13 Jonas Persson 48.21	3:35.83
5	1	Romania	Razvan Ionut Florea 54.81 Valentin Preda 1:01.41 Ioan Stefan Gherghel 52.44 Norbert Trandafir 49.34	3:38.00
6	3	Brazil	Guilherme Guido 54.78 Felipe Silva 1:02.06 Kaio Almeida 53.31 Nicolas Oliveira 48.51	3:38.66
7	7	Ukraine	Oleksandr Isakov 56.66 Valerii Dymo 1:00.61 Sergii Breus 52.38 Yuriy Yegoshin 49.11	3:38.76
8	8	Belarus	Pavel Sankovich 55.11 Viktar Vabishchevich 1:01.89 Evgeny Lazuka 52.63 Stanislav Neverovsky 49.76	3:39.39

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
1	4	United States	Matt Grevers 53.59 Mark Gangloff 1:00.35 Ian Crocker 50.85 Garrett Weber-Gale 47.96	3:32.75	Q
2	3	Russia	Arkady Vyatchanin 53.86 Roman Sludnov 59.63 Nikolay Skvortsov 51.62 Andrey Grechin 48.48	3:33.59	Q, ER
3	8	New Zealand	Daniel Bell 54.52 Glenn Snyders 59.46 Corney Swanepoel 52.12 Cameron Gibson 47.99	3:34.09	Q
4	6	South Africa	Gerhard Zandberg 54.19 Cameron van der Burgh 59.68 Lyndon Ferns 52.33 Darian Townsend 47.96	3:34.16	Q, AF
5	7	Italy	Mirco di Tora 54.05 Alessandro Terrin 1:01.25 Mattia Nalesso 51.96 Filippo Magnini 47.06	3:34.32	Q
6	1	France	Benjamin Stasiulis 55.46 Hugues Duboscq 59.29 Christophe Lebon 51.97 Fabien Gilot 48.06	3:34.78
7	5	Canada	Jake Tapp 55.16 Mike Andrew Brown 1:00.98 Joe Bartoch 52.58 Brent Hayden 46.84	3:35.56
8	2	Croatia	Gordan Kozulj 54.91 Vanja Rogulj 1:01.30 Mario Todorovic 51.52 Duje Draganja 49.96	3:37.69

Final

Rank	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
	4	United States	Aaron Peirsol 53.16 Brendan Hansen 59.27 Michael Phelps 50.15 Jason Lezak 46.76	3:29.34	WR
	5	Australia	Hayden Stoeckel 53.80 Brenton Rickard 58.56 Andrew Lauterstein 51.03 Eamon Sullivan 46.65	3:30.04	OC
	3	Japan	Junichi Miyashita 53.87 Kosuke Kitajima 58.07 Takuro Fujii 50.89 Hisayoshi Sato 48.35	3:31.18	AS
4	6	Russia	Arkady Vyatchanin 53.36 Roman Sludnov 59.45 Evgeny Korotyshkin 51.62 Evgeny Lagunov 47.49	3:31.92	ER
5	7	New Zealand	Daniel Bell 54.74 Glenn Snyders 59.87 Corney Swanepoel 51.78 Cameron Gibson 47.00	3:33.39	NR
6	2	Great Britain	Liam Tancock 54.69 Christopher Cook 59.65 Michael Rock 52.02 Simon Burnett 47.33	3:33.69	NR
7	1	South Africa	Gerhard Zandberg 54.69 Cameron van der Burgh 59.40 Lyndon Ferns 51.39 Darian Townsend 48.22	3:33.70	AF
—	8	Italy	Mirco di Tora 54.52 Loris Facci 1:00.55 Mattia Nalesso 52.26 Filippo Magnini (false start)	DSQ

• Q = Qualified, DSQ = Disqualified
• WR = World Record, OR = Olympic Record
• AF = African Record, AS = Asian Record, ER = European Record, OC = Oceania Record
• CR = Commonwealth Record, NR = National Record

References