[M T]

Just saw the NBC replay of the 4x100 mixed medley. Huske indeed took no breaths, i.e., went hypoxic, for her final 3 1/2 stroke cycles which is beyond impressive coming at the end of a neck-and-neck all-out sprint, a lifetime best 51.88 !! 

That's about 4 seconds.  That's similar to the time she (or any of the swimmers for any stroke) was under water on the turn.  Sorry, but not taking a breath at the end of a race is no big deal.  If you do take a breath in that span for freestyle, it would generally be viewed as a negative (or, at least it used to be, back in prehistoric times).

What was quite good was her overall time, but it was only 0.14 seconds better than her individual race after adjusting for a relay start.  Each of the US swimmers swam slightly better than their individual race.  Subtracting her reaction times from total time gives 51.66 for her individual race, and 51.52  for the mixed medley relay.

Here are the reaction times for the Mixed 400 MR.  0.59, 0.29, 0.36, 0.36 for the 4 swimmers. Pretty pedestrian relay starts. The 3 relay starts for the US add up to 1.01 seconds.  For China, it was 0.84; Australia, 0.68; France, 0.72; Canada, 0.61; Netherlands, 0.85; Great Britain, 0.71; Japan 0.72.

So the US lost about 0.3 seconds on their relay starts to most of the field.  I still believe that is because they were told to make safe starts (esp. after Huske's 0.00 reaction time on the 400 FR).   It almost cost them the race.  If China's relay starts were as fast as Japan or France, they would have tied for first; If as fast as Australia, Canada, or Great Britain, China would have won.  (But on the day of the race, no one thought that China's breaststroker Qin would miraculously swim SO much faster. than his 3 other 100 Breast races in this meet.)

[M T]

Just saw the NBC replay of the 4x100 mixed medley. Huske indeed took no breaths, i.e., went hypoxic, for her final 3 1/2 stroke cycles which is beyond impressive coming at the end of a neck-and-neck all-out sprint, a lifetime best 51.88 !! 

That's about 4 seconds.  That's similar to the time she (or any of the swimmers for any stroke) was under water on the turn.  Sorry, but not taking a breath at the end of a race is no big deal.  If you do take a breath in that span for freestyle, it would generally be viewed as a negative (or, at least it used to be, back in prehistoric times).

What was quite good was her overall time, but it was only 0.14 seconds better than her individual race after adjusting for a relay start.  Each of the US swimmers swam slightly better than their individual race.  Subtracting her reaction times from total time gives 51.66 for her individual race, and 51.52  for the mixed medley relay.

Here are the reaction times for the Mixed 400 MR.  0.59, 0.29, 0.36, 0.36 for the 4 swimmers. Pretty pedestrian relay starts. The 3 relay starts for the US add up to 1.01 seconds.  For China, it was 0.84; Australia, 0.68; France, 0.72; Canada, 0.61; Netherlands, 0.85; Great Britain, 0.71; Japan 0.72.

So the US lost about 0.3 seconds on their relay starts to most of the field.  I still believe that is because they were told to make safe starts (esp. after Huske's 0.00 reaction time on the 400 FR).   It almost cost them the race.  If China's relay starts were as fast as Japan or France, they would have tied for first; If as fast as Australia, Canada, or Great Britain, China would have won.  (But on the day of the race, no one thought that China's breaststroker Qin would miraculously swim SO much faster. than his 3 other 100 Breast races in this meet.)