Despite brilliant anchor leg by Torres, Americans take silver in 400 free relay

The Netherlands just missed lowering their own world record in the women's 400-meter freestyle relay Sunday, but they didn't leave the National Aquatics Center empty-handed.

The Dutch quartet set an Olympic record 3 minutes, 3.76 seconds en route to capturing their first gold medal in the event since 1936, denying the Americans the title for the second consecutive Games after they won three in a row from 1992 to 2000.

Dara Torres, a 1985 graduate from Westlake School (now known as Harvard-Westlake of Studio City), produced a stellar anchor-leg split of 52.44 -- second only to Libby Trickett of Australia's 52.34 -- to help the U.S. produce an American record of 3:34.33, but it wasn't enough to catch Dutch star Marleen Veldhuis, who brought the relay home in 52.58.

Trickett anchored Australia, the reigning Olympic champion and previous record holder, to a bronze medal in 3:35.05, nearly a second below their winning time from Athens.

Natalie Coughlin, the American record-holder in the 100 freestyle, led off in 54 seconds flat, followed by Lacey Nymeyer in 53.91 and Kara Lynn Joyce in 53.98, but the Americans never led, as the Dutch rallied from seventh after the leadoff leg to move into second at the midway point and then pulled ahead for good following Femke Heemskerk's 53.42 third leg, which set the table for Veldhuis' anchor.

Germany, which featured an Olympic-record 53.38 leadoff split by Britta Steffen, led at the halfway point, before falling to fifth (3:36.85), behind China (3:35.64), which set an Asian record to take fourth.

Torres' silver medal was the second of her Olympic career, giving her a total of 10, moving her into a tie for fourth all-time among swimmers, joining American sprinter Gary Hall, Jr., and Germany's Franziska van Almsick.

Americans
Natalie Coughlin, Lacey Nymeyer, Kara Lynn Joyce and Dara Torres

Australia
Cate Campbell, Alice Mills, Melanie Schlanger and Libby Trickett

Netherlands
Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk, Marleen Veldhuis

Germany
Britta Steffen, Meike Freitag, Daniela Gotz, Anje Buschschulte