BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – The American women clinched the Unites States' record 45th medal of the week on the last night of racing at the world swimming championships by winning their 4x100 medley final on Saturday.
Regan Smith, Lilly King, Torri Huske and Claire Curzan were 0.47 seconds ahead of Australia and 1.23 ahead of Canada. It's Smith's second gold medal of the event, after the Lakeville native won the 100 backstroke on Monday.
Smith now has four gold medals at the world championships, having won the 200 back in 2019 and making up part of the winning 4x100 women's medley relay that year as well. Smith and Huske swim at Stanford, and Curzan, 17, will this fall as well.
Asked how much pride she had starting off the relay, Smith said: "A ton of pride. It's really, really cool to get to lead off a medley relay like that for Team USA. And we have such a strong history in this event and so it's an honor to get to do backstroke for three international meets in a row now.
"It's crazy to think that I'm a veteran on that relay. … I have so much fun doing this relay, and we have a great team with us today, and I'm just really proud of all of our performances."
Canadian 15-year-old Summer McIntosh won another gold medal, clocking in 4:32.04 in the women's 400 individual medley. She also won the 200 butterfly, as Canadian swimmers finished with 11 medals for their most successful worlds.
After some confusion, the United States' Justin Ress was confirmed as the men's 50 backstroke champion at 24.12 seconds. He was initially disqualified for being submerged at the finish, but FINA later overturned the disqualification.
