USA Swimming

History was made on Sunday as another swimming record was broken. No, the fact that another swimming record was broken is not the reason to read this as there have been several records per day that have been smashed.

The USA 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay set the world record (3:12.23) in the qualifying heat on Saturday. The team consisting of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner, and Matt Grevers knew that only one of them was going to swim for the gold the next day. The coaches decided that whoever of them was the fastest would swim on Sunday. Later that day, the French team won their heat and the anchor swimmer when asked stated that they would smash the Americans world record when the two teams met the next day.

The next day, walking on the deck with Cullen were fellow teammates Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak. The laded French team had 4 of the fastest 18 freestylers in the world and consisted of European record holders and not only the former 50 meter world record holder but also the former world record holder in the 100 meter.

The United States were in lane 4 and the French team was in lane 5. Phelps stepped onto the starting block and did his intimidating arm motion to psych out the competition. The gun sounded and Eamon Sullivan of Australia took the early lead. At the wall Eamon still had the lead. This was not surprising as he is the current world record holder in both the 50 and 100 meters. At the first exchange Australia was first United States second and France third.

The second leg the overall speed of the both the US and the French overtook the Australian team. At the wall the US led the French by .43 seconds as Garrett Weber-Gale maintained the lead.

The third leg the French former 50 meter world record holder quickly caught up to Cullen Jones who was the only member of to swim the race the previous day. During the second 50 Frederick Bousquet extended the lead and as he handed off to the anchor the French team had a lead of .59 seconds.

Standing on the block were Alain Bernard of France and Jason Lezak of the United States who was the oldest member of the US team. As Bousquet reached the wall, Bernard took off. As Lezak dove in, he was behind Bernard by a body length. Jason made a valiant effort in the first 25 meters to keep contact with the former world record holder. Bernard kicked up huge wake and it seemed to help Lezak keep up with him. As the two reached the wall, Bernard was still in front and he turned for the finish line as the crowd stood up and cheered the competitors. Lezak had a huge flip turn and was fully in the wake of Bernard. Bernard was still in front of Lezak at the 75 meter mark but Lezek had made up a half a body length. Bernard was swimming next to the lane marker which might have been his undoing as Lezak seeing this moved over to be at his side next to the lane marker. With less than 15 meters to go Lezak made a monumental move to catch Bernard. With 5 meters to go the two where neck and neck as each one took a powerful stroke to win the race. The two looked at each other with just a few strokes left and knew that the one to finish strongest would win.

The two finished with what seemed like a tie. The two teams looked up at the times and the United States team erupted as they knew that Lezak had just out touched Bernard. The winning time was 3:08.24 which smashed the world record that was set the pervious day by almost 4 seconds.

At the end history was made as arguably the greatest comeback in a swimming race that I had ever seen had just been completed.