4 × 50 m freestyle relay, men, 25 m pool

What to remember

Four 50 m lengths, four American sprinters and a time of 1 min 21.80 s: the 4 × 50 m freestyle relay mark was set in Hangzhou, China, on December 14, 2018, at the short course World Championships. Caeleb Dressel led off in 20.43 s, Ryan Held swam the fastest leg in 20.25 s, Jack Conger followed in 20.59 s and Michael Chadwick closed in 20.53 s.

The relay exists only in 25 m pools, the one version World Aquatics recognizes. It joined the short course World Championships in 2014, and the men's and women's events were removed from the 2024 program, leaving only the mixed relay.

For Caeleb Dressel, a sprint specialist in freestyle and butterfly, those Hangzhou championships were a rich haul: he won nine medals there, six of them gold. In 2017 in Budapest, he had won seven titles at the long course World Championships.