Jack Alexy, Luke Hobson Leading Elite U.S. Men’s Free Relays to Short Course Worlds
The United States has assembled its team traveling to the Short Course World Championships in Beijing, with the most but not all big-name American swimmers securing their spots at the biennial global meet. The combination of swimmers on the team will give the U.S. a chance to sweep the freestyle relays and challenge world records in all of them.
The U.S. men recorded the fastest long course times in 2026 in both the 400 and 800 freestyle relays on their way to gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships. The teams heading the the short course meet will look a bit different, most notably with the return of one of history’s all-time great sprinters to the American ranks.
400 Freestyle Relay
Caeleb Dressel — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Jack Alexy, Chris Guilano and Caeleb Dressel. Does it really matter who holds down the fourth leg on this U.S. team? That group comprised three-quarters of the Olympic-gold-medal-winning squad two years ago, and they will surely have enough firepower to give the U.S. men a short course world title in the event this December.
Alexy took down the short course world record in the 100 free at the selection meet with his sizzling time of 44.64. That was than two tenths under the previous mark shared by Kyle Chalmers and Egor Kornev and a whopping four tenths better than the American record of 45.05 at the 2024 Short Course Worlds, a meet where he won individual gold in the 100 free. Guiliano, with his prelims time of 45.17, became the 12th-quickest man ever and fourth-fastest this year while Dressel’s 45.65 was just over a half-second off his lifetime best of 45.08, not bad considering he had raced the 100 butterfly earlier in the session.
Patrick Sammon, a finalist in the 100 free at the 2025 World Championships, did not qualify for this team, while Matt King, who place fourth in the 100 free final at Trials, was left off the team due to roster limits. Still, the American men will have solid options for the fourth spot between Gabriel Jett, Destin Lasco and Grant House, all of whom swam between 45.74 and 46.26 in Westmont. Meanwhile, Luke Hobson returned to the team with his wins in the 200 and 400 free, and he split 45.18 at Short Course Worlds two years ago when the U.S. men won gold in world-record time. Butterfly specialist Ilya Kharun might also be an option.
The composite of the top times from Trials adds up to 3:25, fourtenths under the 3:01.66 that the American team featuring Alexy, Guiliano and Hobson swam in 2024. Could this group challenge the 3:00-barrier. With the advantage of relay exchanges, the last three swimmers on the relay should be able to swim about a half-second quicker than their flat-start times. That puts this group within range of that vaunted target.
Jack Alexy 44.64 + Chris Guiliano 45.22 + Caeleb Dressel 45.65 + Gabriel Jett 45.74 = 3:01.25
800 Freestyle Relay
Luke Hobson — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
This is the one U.S. free relay traveling to China without overwhelming depth, but having Luke Hobson holding down the fort plus plenty of versatile swimmers on the team might make up for that. On the way to the U.S. men setting a world record of 6:40.51 at the 2024 meet, Hobson led off in 1:38.91, an individual world record for the 200 free. He went on to lower that mark to 1:38.61 days later on the way to individual gold. Hobson won the event at the recent selection meet in 1:39.93, the eighth-fastest performance in history.
Outside of Hobson, the entire roster will be different this time around. Chris Guiliano finished second in the 200 free at the trials in 1:40.26 while Gabriel Jett followed up his stellar silver-medal swim at Pan Pacs with a third-place time of 1:40.58. The final member of the squad figures to be Jack Alexy, a sprint specialist but capable of extending to the 200-meter race in short course. Alexy finished with a time of 1:41.05 at the selection meet to place fourth.
The American team could also turn to Kieran Smith, sixth in the 200 free at Trials but on the team for the 400-meter race. Smith took part in the record-breaking relay two years ago. Ryan Erisman did not race the 200-meter final this week, but he was the U.S. national champion in the long course version of the event over the summer, and he clocked 1:41.61 in prelims before scratching. The team will also include a number of swimmers who achieved strong results in the 200-yard free during their college careers, including Luca Urlando, Destin Lasco, Grant House, Owen McDonald and Maximus Williamson, the latter of whom was the NCAA champ in the event in 2026.
Based on flat-start times from Westmont, the Americans have a time of 6:41.82, just over a second behind the world record but well within range for the global meet when accounting for relay exchanges.
Luke Hobson 1:39.93 + Chris Guiliano 1:40.26 + Gabriel Jett 1:40.58 + Jack Alexy 1:41.05 = 6:41.82
