Some of my favorite and most dramatic American wins in the last two Olympics have taken place in the pool.
In 2000, swimmers Gary Hall, Jr. and Anthony Ervin tied for the gold in the splash-and-dash 50m free over a field including Russian Alexander Popov, who'd won the gold in the event in both 1992 and 1996. (Don't think Popov was over the hill: he'd set the world record in the event a few months before the 2000 Olympics.)
In 2004, Michael Phelps trailed U.S. teammate and world-record holder Ian Crocker by a body length at the turn of the 100m butterfly, but chased him down for the gold and set a new Olympic record.
Neither was as cool as what just happened.
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The 4 x 100m free relay was billed as a showdown between the United States and France, but the color commentator, whoever that is, seemed awfully sure the Americans didn't have a chance.
It seemed odd, considering the United States team had set the world record in the race the day before with their B team. But France's talent in the top-three spots was sure to beat the Americans' overall depth. Well, sure to the French, at least.
"The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for," said 100m free world record holder and French cleanup hitter Alain Bernard before the race.
Someone from France was talking trash about the U.S. before one of Phelps' races? The cynic in me wondered what NBC had slipped Bernard to say that. The drama was almost too good to be true.
The announcers were in agreement that whoever won the race would have to beat the fresh world record handily, and they were absolutely right. The top five finishes in the race all would have broken the world record set the day before.
Anyway, Phelper led off for the Americans, but the team trailed Australia when he came out of the water. Garrett Weber-Gale was second and kept us right in it, but I started to wonder how we would ever make our move. During Cullen Jones' first fifty meters, the gold medal began to look all but out of reach as France's sprinters began to pull away.
Bernard jumped into the water ahead of American anchorman Jason Lezak, who only needed to chase down that world record holder to win it. He wasn't losing any distance on the first fifty, but it still seemed like the U.S. would lose the event for the third straight Olympics. On the swim back, though, he turned it on like no one has before, catching Bernard at the very end and touching eight-hundredths of a second earlier than the Frenchman. Lezak swam his hundred meters in 46.06 seconds, the fastest-ever split in this race. And the U.S. team just went crazy.
I love the Olympics.
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I am a huge fan of Phelps, one of the dominant athletes of his generation, and watched hours of gymnastics tonight just to be sure to catch his races. I'm just a little afraid I'll be sick of hearing about him by the end of the Games. After the race, NBC showed Lezak's finish, all right, but also kept emphasizing how much Phelps had been cheering, and how excited he was when he saw the U.S. won. Hey, they're all excited. I just sensed that the story of the 32-year-old Lezak, who'd been on the silver and then bronze-winning relay teams in Sydney and Athens, would have been more interesting. In any event, Phelps qualified for the 200m free finals about an hour before leading off the relay, and you can watch him compete for gold in that race Monday night (American time).
UPDATE: You can catch video of the race at NBC's Olympics site, though it will prompt you to install Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in.
Comments
What makes the victory even better is the fact that it came at the French team's expense.
Blaine, I hope Bernard felt like garbage after the race, because he blew it. How does the world-record holder talk that much trash and still give up the lead? Plus, it was so nice to see the U.S. reclaim the gold in a race that has been traditionally ours.