Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay

This event made its debut in Doha 2014, making Melbourne 2022 the fifth time this event is contested.

Brazil claimed gold in the inaugural race, which was followed by back-to-back US victories, while last year the Netherlands came first.

A year ago, the Dutch were 0.02sec shy of their world record (1:36.18), set at the short-course Europeans a month earlier.

While in 2013, the first year when this event started appearing in the programmes of various meets, the world record was bettered 9 times in a span of four months, the next record came five years later.

The US set a new mark in Hangzhou 2018 (so far the only WR swim at the Worlds in this event), and that was further improved at the last two Europeans, first by the Russians in 2019, then by the Netherlands in 2021.

Women’s 800m Freestyle

With China’s Li Bingjie is out of this race too – she pulled out from the 400m free on opening day due to illness – the door is wide open for the ladies who already excelled in the 400m final. Aussie Lani Pallister has the best entry time (after Li), so she may look for a 400-800 double which Li had completed in Abu-Dhabi a year ago. However, runner-up Erika Fairweather of New Zealand and bronze medallist Leah Smith of the US can pose a threat again – Smith won the event in 2016 –, and the other Chinese, Zhang Ke may also make some splash.

Li could have maintained China’s dominance in this event, ‘founded by’ Chen Hua who won three straight titles in 1999, 2000 and 2002. She was the only one with such a run – before and after her, not even a single title defence occurred, nor anyone surfaced who could win the event at least twice. Smith may become the first one who adds a second title.

In this event, so far, no championships have ever seen a world record swim – and with Katie Ledecky smashing Mireia Belmonte’s 2013 mark by almost two seconds this October at the Indianapolis stop of the World Cup (7:57.42), it’s hard to see that anyone in the current field could match the American great’s speed.

Just like the men’s 1500m, this event is also run in a timed final format – the eight swimmers with the best entry times will be part of the show in the evening session, however, everyone swimming in the morning ‘heats’ has the chance to be placed higher in the absolute ranking at the end of the day.

Some of the all-time distance swimming greats also showed up in the 25m pool since 1993 – among the gold medallists we have 4-time Olympic champion Janet Evans of the US (first edition in 1993), Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington, whose success in Manchester turned out to be a prelude to what happened after in Beijing 2008 (she claimed two titles) and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte (who won Olympic gold in the 200m fly).

Women’s 100m Backstroke

Two Aussies, two Americans and two Canadians plus a Swedish and a Dutch – this final is set to be a thriller. Title-holder Louise Hansson (SWE) out-touched Canada’s Kylie Masse by 0.02sec at the wall in Abu Dhabi – indeed, Masse ended up with three silver medals over the three backstroke events.

Though the best efforts in the semis came from 18-year-old Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan (who had already bagged gold with the 4x100m free relay) and Canada’s Ingrid Wilm. It’s yet to be seen if they could take on the experienced backstrokers, including the 200m WR-holder Kaylee McKeown from lane 7.

The US swimmers have dominated this event, winning 7 of the 15 finals since 1993.

Still, if Hansson could retain her title, she would join Haley Cope (USA, 2002, 2004) and Katinka Hosszu (HUN, 2014, 2016), the only two with back-to-back wins in the past.

Upon her first win, Hosszu set a new WR in Doha – this was the second and to date the last time that the global mark was bettered at the World Championships (first it happened in 1993, by USA’s Angel Martino).

The Canadians have a long history of silver medals, they were runners-up four times – including Masse finishing second twice – but the Canadians have yet to win this event.

Men’s 100m Backstroke

USA’s Ryan Murphy topped the semi-final ranks and he is set to win a second title after 2018 – and he could maintain the US dominance in this event. This could be their third win in a row which would tie the Cubans’ three-peat from 1995-97-99. The USA has claimed 7 titles so far, quite interestingly by seven different swimmers – Murphy may become the first one to have at least two golds in this event. A year ago, Shaine Casas hit the wall first, he is now focusing on the medley and the 200m back.

The Aussies also enjoyed some success in the past, Matt Welsh and Mitch Larkin both won the event twice.

Athens 2000 and Shanghai 2006 were the two editions where the gold medal came with a new world record (USA’s Neil Walker, then Ryan Lochte, the first one who just broke the 50sec barrier with a 49.99 effort). Interestingly, the last two marks were set at the ISL meets in 2020 and 2021, the current one is held by Coleman Stewart of the USA (48.33).

Melbourne also witnessed a world record swim, exactly 20 years ago when Germany’s Thomas Rupprath clocked 50.58 at a meet in December.

Women’s 50m Butterfly

Call her Ms Versatility – top qualifier Margaret MacNeil is one of the most exceptional young greats in the field as she claimed Olympic gold (Tokyo 2021) and world title (Gwangju 2019) in the 100m fly, but, alongside the 100m fly, she won the 50m back in Abu Dhabi 2021 too, and helped the Canadians to claim two golds in freestyle relays.

China’s Yufei Zhang delivered her best results over 200m (e. g. Olympic gold in Tokyo), however, this year, in Budapest she produced a rare run of claiming bronze medals in all three butterfly finals.

USA’s Torri Huske enjoyed a breakthrough performance this June in Budapest where she amassed six medals, 3 golds and 3 bronzes, including a 100m fly title.

Eight-time Olympic gold medallist (all in relays) Jenny Thompson of the USA, who bagged 11 titles at the short-course Worlds, was the star of this dash event at the beginning, won three of the first four races. Still, the Swedes top the all-time ranks with four titles, though it’s interesting that top specialist Sarah Sjostrom could win this event only once, in 2014, last year Ranomi Kromowidjojo bettered her. The Dutch had won the last two titles before she called it a day.

Both in the men’s and women’s events only two world records apiece remained intact from the shiny suit era – the 50m fly is one of the four (besides the women’s 200m breast, men’s 200m and 800m free), where the WR is 13 years old.

During the two years of superfast suits, the 50m fly record was bettered six times, four of those new marks belonged to Sweden’s sprinting queen Theresa Alshammar, whose 24.38 from November 2009, clocked at the Singapore World Cup leg, is still the time to beat.

Men’s 50m Butterfly

Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo tied the world record (21.75) a year ago at the short-course Europeans in Kazan (where he claimed a career-high three gold medals). He couldn’t hold his top shape for Abu-Dhabi, he left last year’s championships empty-handed, just like the entire Hungarian team – thus Abu-Dhabi 2021 was the first FINA major meet since the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where Hungary took part but did not win any medal. Now the top qualifier can shepherd back Hungary to the medal-winning track.

Szabo was 8 years old when Brazil’s legend Nicholas Santos claimed his first short-course World Champs medals, a silver and a bronze, at the 2004 edition (in relay and in 50m free). He will walk out to swim the final on lane 6 as the title-holder – winning in Abu Dhabi as a 41-years old made him the oldest-ever world champion. Though Santos insisted on being set to retire, he made up his mind and returned to the show and surely he’ll have a shot on another medal.

If he takes gold again, Santos will become the first swimmer to win three titles in a row – previously only GB’s Mark Foster (1993-95) and Chad le Clos (2014-16) could retain their respective titles. Santos, however, would claim his fourth gold altogether as he also came first in this event in 2012. In 2018 he bettered the WR at the championships in Huangzhou, bringing down another mark from the shiny era (Szabo tied that time in 2021).

Another veteran, though quite young compared to Santos with his 30 years, Chad le Clos of South Africa is going after another type of record as he wants to better Ryan Lochte’s tally of individual podiums. Lochte has 24, Le Clos stands with 18, this is his first chance to further narrow the gap.

Dylan Carter would add another nice chapter to Trinidad and Tobago’s swimming history – after George Bowell won a first-ever medal at the short-course Worlds in 2012 (in the 100m medley), Carter had a bronze in the 50m fly in 2018 and a silver in Abu Dhabi. Maybe it’s time for a gold – which would be the first-ever victory by a swimmer from the tiny nation. A year ago, he was 0.05sec away but Santos’ experience prevailed.

Third-ranked Noe Ponti may cause some surprise – the Swiss excelled over the longer distances (Olympic bronze and European silver in the 100m fly, a silver from Abu Dhabi 2021 in the 200m fly), now he tests himself in the dash.

Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay

China won this event 5 times and had 5 more medals from the previous 15 editions. By gold medals, they top the all-time ranks.

In terms of total number of medals, the current hosts Australia lead as they have reached the podium 11 times in 15 occasions, though they could come first only once, in 2006, besides taking 3 silver and 7 bronze medals.

Canada enjoyed some success recently, won two of the last three events, first at home in Windsor 2016, then last year in Abu-Dhabi.

The USA triumphed in this event twice, the last time in 2012. They couldn’t add any more gold in the last ten years, making this the longest drought in any relay events for the swimming’s No. 1 nation. They finished runners-up in the last three editions.

The world record of this event was bettered 9 times since the inaugural 1993 edition and 8 of those happened at these championships.

Usually, the records have fallen in every two-four years; the longest wait was 6 years between 2002 and 2008. Now, this has been eclipsed as the Netherlands’ WR (7:32.85) has been standing since 2014.