US falls short of gold for the first time in the men's 4x100-meter medley

NANTERRE, France — The Chinese men won gold in 4x100-meter medley relay, dethroning the US, who took silver. 

China stunned the U.S., which had won gold in the event 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. 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.

It was also a disappointing finish in Paris for Caeleb Dressel. The silver medal is his first non-gold Olympic medal. 

In Tokyo, he won gold in every event he swam, but after winning his eighth career gold medal in a relay on Day 1 of the Olympic swimming slate, the American star missed chances to defend two of his Olympic titles from three years ago in Tokyo in the 50-meter freestyle and 100 butterfly.

Dressel sobbed when he failed to reach the fly final with the 13th-fastest time just shortly after a sixth-place showing in the 50 free.