Michael Phelps kept his goal of 8 gold medals in one Olympics alive when the US Men's 4x100 Relay team touched out the favored French team by a finger (.08 seconds). In the process the set a new world record, shattered the new American record they had set the night before by nearly 8 seconds and turned the French team into a group of whining losers. Phelps' emotion was obvious when the Americans won.
If you haven't seen this, you just have to watch the video. You can watch the entire race and post race interviews here on the NBC site. [Note: you have to install MS Silverlight, but it's worth it! I installed it on my iMac and it runs great.]
USA Today's Vicki Michaells wrote:
If Phelps sets the record, a big thanks should go to Lezak, who caught France's Alain Bernard, the world recordholder in the 100 freestyle, in the last few meters of the race. The U.S. men won by eight-hundredths of a second, finishing in 3:08.24 to France's 3:08.32.
The winning time was nearly four seconds faster than the world record the U.S. men set in the preliminaries.
Lezak swam his leg in 46.06 seconds. Bernard's world record in the 100 freestyle is 47.5 seconds.
"His last 50 meters were absolutely incredible," Phelps said of Lezak. "He had a perfect finish."
The 4x100 freestyle relay was one of the biggest question marks on Phelps' program. A U.S. loss in the event at the 2004 Olympics derailed Phelps' attempt at eight golds.
Bernard predicted last week that the French would "smash" the Americans in the relay. Instead, the U.S. men put an emphatic point on Phelps' run at the single greatest performance in Olympic history.
"They had talked a lot about it, and we would just rather do it in the pool," Lezak said.
Reuters captured more of the French attitude:
The French were unable to contain their emotions after the race with Bernard breaking down in tears.
"They (the U.S.) got lucky," growled his team mate Fabien Gilot.
"Experience prevailed over talent today, and I regret that," added France's Frederick Bousquet.
Tears are understandable, but Gilot and Bousquet showed a complete lack of class. Arrogance doesn't get you to the wall! To make things even worse for the downcast French, their boastful star (Bernard) also saw his world record fall. Australia's Eamon Sullivan broke the individual world record in the 100 freestylye by swimming the leadoff leg in 47.24 — ahead of Bernard's 47.5 mark.
If you're wondering, the lead off leg of a relay can count for a world record because it has a normal start, no other leg can because of the "rolling start" that you get on a relay leg. So, while Lezak's swim was incredible, it cannot be considered for the world record.
Next up for Phelps: 200m Freestyle final tonight (Monday) US time (between 7-11 pm).
Wondering about the time difference with Beijing? They are 12 hours ahead of Eastern time (so 15 for those of us in Arizona).
Mark Spitz vs. Michael Phelps: Interested in comparing Mark Spitz to Michael Phelps. USA Today has a nice comparison of the two, including what events they each swim (Spitz didn't do the two IM events and Phelps doesn't do the 100m Free, except in the relay). Check it out here. Don't make too much of the time differences. The changes since 1972 in training and equipment are amazing. Spitz never swam in those nifty lazer suits, either! You always have to compare swimmers to their contemporaries when it comes to times. Results (number of wins, medals) are more useful in comparing eras. Spitz was every bit as dominant in his day as Phelps is today, although Phelps' dominance may have been more long lived. But even that is hard to judge. Athletes in Spitz' day were true amateurs, with little ability to cash in on their success until after they retired. This is not true today, so you can continue competing and training for longer periods.
Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final
| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|
 United States |  France |  Australia |
| Rank | ||
| 1 | United StatesMichael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak | WR 3:08.24 |
| 2 | FranceAmaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot, Frederick Bousquet, Alain Bernard | 3:08.32 |
| 3 | AustraliaEamon Sullivan, Andrew Lauterstein, Ashley Callus, Matt Targett | 3:09.91 |
| 4 |  ItalyAlessandro Calvi, Christian Galenda, Marco Belotti, Filippo Magnini | 3:11.48 |
| 5 |  SwedenPetter Stymne, Lars Frolander, Stefan Nystrand, Jonas Persson | 3:11.92 |
| 6 |  CanadaBrent Hayden, Joel Greenshields, Colin Russell, Rick Say | 3:12.26 |
| 7 |  South AfricaLyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend, Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling | 3:12.66 |
| 8 |  Great BritainSimon Burnett, Adam Brown, Benjamin Hockin, Ross Davenport | 3:12.87 |
