Active.com 2008 Olympics : Tags : swim

SPOILER ALERT: the US won the 4x100 meter freestyle swimming event! Team USA out-touched its French counterpart by the slimmest of margins (.08 seconds to be exact)

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I am fairly confident in saying that, even this early in the Beijing Olympics, the men's 4x100 freestyle relay will go down as the most memorable race of this olympics. Heck, maybe even in the entire history of the Olympics.

The French team was heavily favored to win behind their world-record holding anchor Alain Bernard. Australia was expected to snag the silver, with the US team following with the bronze. Alain Bernard, the French team's trash talking star, proclaimed, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." The humble US team brushed it off as friendly banter.

It seems that Team USA also took the French team's words, let them marinade overnight, grilled them up and feasted on them for a pre-race carbo-load.

As much as I'd love to go into the finite details of this race, the video speaks for itself (watch the race here). Don't worry if you missed it or don't have the right plug-in, it'll be replayed for decades to come.

My sole purpose in writing this post is not to dictate the race or analyze the details, but rather to give credit where credit is due. This was not Michael Phelps' race, despite his near record split time. This was not Garrett Weber-Gale's race, nor was it Cullen Jones' race, who became only the second African-American to win a gold in swimming (a grand accomplishment on its own!).

This race will forever belong to 32-year-old Jason Lezak, who picked the best possible time to swim faster than any human being has ever swam 100 meters. He did so head-to-head against the 100 meter freestyle world-record holder (at the time).

You tell me...was this the most exciting event you've seen in ANY Olympics? If not, what is?

0 Comments Permalink Tags: swimming, swim, olympics, beijing, jason, lezak, michael, phelps, gold_medal

It was an impressive weekend in the pool for Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff as both captured world records at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.

You know it's going to be an exciting meet when Phelps and Ryan Lochte jump in the pool. The two friends and rivals continued to push each other to new heights this weekend in the 400 IM and were neck and neck for the majority of the race. In the last 20 meters Phelps pulled away from Lochte to set a new world record with a finish of 4:05.25. Lochte came in less than a second later with a finish of 4:06.08. Both times beat Phelps' previous world mark of 4:06.22. I have no doubt that the two competitors will be eager to go stroke for stroke again in August at the Beijing Games. It will be an exciting event that I will be sure to watch in a few short months.

Katie Hoff also broke a record on Sunday in the 400 IM with a finish of 4:31.12. Her time beats the previous world mark of 4:31.46 set March 22 by Stephanie Rice of Australia.

It should be a great year for the U.S. Olympic Swim Team!