Quietly Confident Quartet - Race

Race

The medley relay was scheduled for Thursday, 24 July, the fifth day of swimming competition, with heats in the morning and the final in the evening. Australia's prospects improved when Sweden was disqualified in the first heat. Australia and the Soviet Union swam in the second heat. With their superior depth, the home team was able to rest their entire first-choice quartet in the heats. On the other hand, Australia was only willing to rest Kerry—Glenn Patching swam the backstroke leg in his place. The hosts led the Australians from the start and extended their margin over each of the first three legs. Brooks reclaimed 1.34 s on the freestyle leg, but the Australians fell 0.13 s short to come second in their heat. Nevertheless, the Australians still qualified in second place overall, as they and the Soviets were more than 1.5 s faster than the third-placed Hungarians. In any case, despite resting all of their first-choice quartet, the home team were still faster than the Australians, who had fielded all but one of their full-strength team.

Evans brashly took the opportunity to attempt to regain the psychological ascendancy from Goodhew, confronting him privately and stating that "we will win it", later reporting that the Briton was astounded by his posturing. The eldest swimmer in the quartet at the age of 23, Tonelli convened the team as its de facto leader. He asked his compatriots to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swim the backstroke in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s. Tonelli named the foursome the "Quietly Confident Quartet" because they exhibited a reserved self-belief as they lined up for the race. Whereas most of the other teams were "psyching up" in the marshalling area, the Australians were remaining light-hearted and placid, confident that they could perform in the water.

Patching was one of several backstrokers who had slipped on the starting area earlier in the meet, so Kerry decided to rub a sticky red substance onto the soles of his feet. The Soviet organisers had provided a carpet following the incidents, resulting in Kerry leaving red footprints in the stadium. Kerry led off in a time faster than his effort in the individual event, but it was still two seconds slower than his personal best. He finished his leg in 57.87 s, leaving Australia in fourth place. Kuznetsov gave the Soviets the lead after posting a time of 56.81 s, with Hungary and Great Britain in second and third place. France was the last to reach the 100 m mark, recording a time of 58.84 s. Evans then swam a personal best of 63.01 s, the fastest split among the breaststrokers by 0.63 s. His leg moved Australia into second place at the halfway mark, just 0.45 s behind the hosts and roughly half a second ahead of the British and the Hungarians. The four leading teams had broken away, leaving a two-second gap back to the fifth-placed East Germans. Tonelli then swam his leg in 54.94 s, almost two seconds faster than his previous best over the distance. He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind Seredin until a late surge brought him to within a metre by the time the swimmers touched the wall. If Tonelli had replicated his relay leg in the individual event, he would have claimed the silver medal. Although he lost 0.36 s to Seredin, he had minimised his loss and Australia were within 0.81 s going into the final leg. Furthermore, the Australians were now more than a second clear of the third placed Great Britain.

Brooks then executed a powerful, well-timed dive and surfaced almost even with his Soviet counterpart Kopliakov. He had drawn level halfway through his leg and made a superior turn to take the lead as they headed home. The Soviet freestyler pulled level with 25 m to go before Brooks again pulled away to seal an Australian victory by 0.22 s. He did not breathe in the last ten metres, and claimed to be laughing for the final five metres, confident that his opponent could not pass him. Brooks had finished his leg in 49.86 s as he had vowed to his team mates. In doing so, he recorded the swiftest freestyle split in the relay, faster than that of the individual 100 m freestyle gold medallist, Jörg Woithe of East Germany.

The time of 3 m 45.70 s sealed Australia's first win in a medley relay at the Olympics, for men or women. It remains the only time that the United States has not won the men's event. The team made a celebratory dive into the water and did a poolside interview. Tonelli remarked that "I was totally stunned. After all the hassle, and my being the athletes' mouthpiece, we'd come through and done it". Forrest hailed the win as "a gold medal that should never have been".