China hands U.S. first ever loss in men's 4x100m medley relay - ESPN

NANTERRE, France — China stunned the U.S. by winning gold in the men's 4x100 medley relay on Sunday, a race the Americans had won at every Olympics other than the boycotted Moscow Games in 1980.

The medley relay was added to the program in 1960.

The winning team included Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, who were both among the nearly two dozen swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance at the Tokyo Games but were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated. The result is sure to stir more hard feelings from other nations that feel the Chinese got away with cheating.

But the real star of the Chinese team was Pan Zhanle, who had previously set a world record while winning the 100 free and powered away from American Hunter Armstrong on the anchor leg to touch in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds.

The Americans had to settle for silver in 3:28.01, with France taking bronze in 3:28.38 to give Léon Marchand his fifth medal of the games to go along with four individual golds.

THE CLOSEST OF FINISHES.

Team USA finishes with SILVER in a thrilling men's 4x100m medley relay!<a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParisOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=» https:>#ParisOlympics

|