Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay
The men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 3–4 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
In the final race of his unprecedented career before a temporary retirement, Michael Phelps topped off with his eighteenth gold and twenty-second overall to officially become the most decorated Olympian of all time, as the U.S. men's team posted a textile best to defend the Olympic medley relay title since the event's inception in 1960. Trading the lead with Japan throughout the race, the solid foursome of Matt Grevers, Brendan Hansen, Phelps, and Nathan Adrian put together a historic ending with a blazing fast finish in 3:29.35, just a fingertip short of their 2008 Olympic record during the high-tech bodysuit era.
Japan's Ryosuke Irie, Kosuke Kitajima, Takeshi Matsuda, and Takuro Fujii held on an arduous challenge with the Americans throughout the race before Adrian pulled off a lead in the freestyle leg, leaving them with a silver in 3:31.26. Meanwhile, James Magnussen produced a magnificent freestyle anchor of 47.22 to deliver the Aussie foursome of Hayden Stoeckel, Christian Sprenger, and Matt Targett a bronze-medal time in 3:31.58.
Great Britain's Liam Tancock, Michael Jamieson, Michael Rock, and Adam Brown missed the podium by almost three quarters of a second with a fourth-place effort in 3:32.32. Meanwhile, Hungary's László Cseh, Dániel Gyurta, Bence Pulai, and Dominik Kozma claimed a fifth spot in 3:33.02 to hold off the agile German foursome of Helge Meeuw, Christian vom Lehn, and Deibler brothers Steffen and Markus by four-hundredths of a second, a sixth-place time in 3:33.06. Netherlands and Canada, anchored by freestyle swimmer and bronze medalist Brent Hayden, rounded out a historic championship finale.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.Results
Heats
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Nation | Swimmers | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Nick Thoman Eric Shanteau Tyler McGill Cullen Jones | 3:32.65 | Q | |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | Liam Tancock Craig Benson Michael Rock Adam Brown | 3:33.44 | Q | |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | Ryosuke Irie Kosuke Kitajima Takeshi Matsuda Takuro Fujii | 3:33.64 | Q | |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | Hayden Stoeckel Brenton Rickard Matt Targett Tommaso D'Orsogna | 3:33.73 | Q | |
| 5 | 1 | 3 | Nick Driebergen Lennart Stekelenburg Joeri Verlinden Sebastiaan Verschuren | 3:33.78 | Q, NR | |
| 6 | 2 | 5 | Helge Meeuw Christian vom Lehn Steffen Deibler Marco di Carli | 3:34.28 | Q | |
| 7 | 2 | 6 | László Cseh NR Dániel Gyurta Bence Pulai Dominik Kozma | 3:34.44 | Q, NR | |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | Charles Francis Scott Dickens Joe Bartoch Brent Hayden | 3:34.46 | Q | |
| 9 | 2 | 2 | Gareth Kean Glenn Snyders Andrew McMillan Carl O'Donnell | 3:34.52 | ||
| 10 | 2 | 7 | Camille Lacourt Giacomo Perez d'Ortona Romain Sassot Yannick Agnel | 3:34.60 | ||
| 11 | 1 | 8 | Cheng Feiyi Li Xiayan Zhou Jiawei Lü Zhiwu | 3:34.65 | ||
| 12 | 1 | 7 | Vladimir Morozov Vyacheslav Sinkevich Nikolay Skvortsov Andrey Grechin | 3:34.94 | ||
| 13 | 2 | 8 | Charl Crous Cameron van der Burgh Chad le Clos Leith Shankland | 3:35.23 | ||
| 14 | 1 | 5 | Mirco di Tora Fabio Scozzoli Matteo Rivolta Luca Dotto | 3:36.88 | ||
| 15 | 1 | 6 | Thiago Pereira Felipe França Silva Kaio de Almeida Marcelo Chierighini | 3:37.00 | ||
| 16 | 2 | 1 | Radosław Kawęcki Dawid Szulich Paweł Korzeniowski Kacper Majchrzak | 3:38.16 |