Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak and the Miracle on Melted Ice

- Red Smith, 1951

The utterly impossible just became plausible on the world's largest stage. The boy who would be king took his next step towards immortality. Hubris claimed its latest victim. Most importantly, however, a relatively unknown Olympian swam the fastest relay split in history. And it all came down to eight hundredths of a second.

The American Men's 4 x 100 meter freestyle team, deprived of Gold in the previous two Olympic games, came back with an impressive and almost miraculous come-from-behind victory in Beijing's Water Cube on Monday. Anchor man (the last man to participate in a relay race) Jason Lezak set an all-time record with a mind boggling split of 46.06 seconds, barely beating France's anchor, Alain Bernard.

Bernard had done his own part in securing the American victory. Earlier when asked about up-and-coming France's chances of defeating the Americans and spoiling Michael Phelps' run at an unprecedented eight gold medals in one Games, Bernard brashly declared, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for". The American team saved a clipping of this statement and used it as motivation to upset the heavily-favored French.

The race was started for the Americans by Michael Phelps, who is attempting to shatter Mark Spitz's 1972 Games record of seven Gold medals in one Games. This relay, and the earlier 400 meter Individual Medley were considered by experts to be the two toughest challenges to Phelps' Olympic conquest. Phelps obliterated his previous record in the earlier medley race, and his strong opening leg provided an excellent base from which Jason Lezak would eventually snatch Gold from the jaws of Silver.

Lezak was the hero of the evening with his world record time, which was made all the more impressive by the fact that Bernard, the Frenchman, had a near body length lead on Lezak with roughly 75 meters left to go in the race. Lezak said in an interview after the race that he was, "tired of losing," and poured it on in the home stretch as Bernard appeared to be shortening his strokes and attempting to coast to victory. While Lezak and his compatriots celebrated in wild excitement, Bernard and his teammates stood stunned and speechless.

In another heartbreaker at the Water Cube, female American swimmer Katie Hoff was denied Gold by Britain's Rebecca Adlington by seven hundredths of a second, much like the French relay team would be bested by Jason Lezak later that morning.

Overall, it was an impressive day for Team USA. The "Redeem Team," America's latest batch of NBA superstars looking to return to form after a disappointing 2004, walloped Yao Ming and host country China 101-70, in front of possibly the largest audience to ever witness any sporting event in history. The female gymnastics team, lead by Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, struggled through injuries and some heartbreaking mistakes but managed to qualify for the team finals and a showdown against powerhouse China.