Men's 4X100 Relay Ends in Stunning Comeback Victory

It seems every four years, an Olympic event grabs the United States by the collar and shocks it into exhilaration. This was no exception, but it was far from anticipated. With Michael Phelps' quest for eight gold medals, the media and fanfare has been about his individual performances in swimming. On August 10th, 2008, however, during the late night hours of American time, the men's 4X100 relay finals shot to the forefront in an amazing comeback victory. Only hours earlier, the media began reporting that France's swimming anchor Alain Bernard had told reporters "the Americans? We will smash them." Serving as fodder for American spirit, Phelps, along with Garrett Weber, Cullen Jones, and anchor Jason Lezak, used this to motivate them for an energetic race but never imagined it would end like this.

Phelps began the first leg of the relay, turning in a time of 47.51 seconds and holding the United States in second, just behind Australia. Garrett Weber swam the second leg and gave the Americans the lead, only to lose it during the third leg of the relay, swam by Cullen Jones. It was during the fourth leg of the relay that everything became crystallized. It became very clear that France's anchor Bernard had good reason to talk trash. From the casual observers view, Bernard was nothing less than a machine, slicing through the water as if propelled by a jet. The announcers barked about Bernard being on a pace to smash his own world record, much less the Americans. American anchor Lezak took to the water but gave no visual sign of hope, trailing Bernard for the first 50 meters and then some.

But it was just after the halfway point that things began to change. A miracle, you could even say. Taking two hard thrusts after another, Lezak began to approach Bernard's lead. The two were already past the halfway point(and world record time) as two questions began to formulate in everyone's mind: could Lezak actually catch the French missile? And if so, could he do it in time?

Lezak, not only did it in time, but by eight one-hundreths of a second. Replay after replay showed that had Lezak cut his fingernails prior to the race, the Americans may have grabbed silver. The exhilaration was apparent not only in the screaming American announcers yelling "he did it! He did it!," but also in the primal screams of cheerleading team mates Phelps and Weber. Even they had to watch the replay before realizing Lezak had pulled off a miracle, and it was they who had smashed the French and the existing world record.

The swimcube in Beijing was full of reporters and fans, a common sight during these Summer Games given Phelps' quest for medals. But no one, including Phelps himself, anticipated anything like this.