Swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games:

American women had already won the 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 100 butterfly in Los Angeles, so their victory in this event seemed assured, given that they did not have to face the East Germans. In the prelims this status became more solid when their biggest rivals, the Netherlands, seemed to have won the first heat in a Dutch record of 4:11.29, only to be disqualified for jumping too soon on an exchange. In heat two another challenger, Australia, was also disqualified for the same infraction. This made the final anti-climactic as the USA led from the first leg and won easily, recording 4:08.34 to lead West Germany by over 3½ seconds. Canada came in for the bronze medal, as two more teams, Japan and Sweden, were disqualified in the final. Three weeks later the East German medley relay team set another world record of 4:03.69 to win the Friendship Games, followed by the Soviet Union, which recorded 4:08.13.