Sports

The Olympics are all about proving to yourself, your family, and your country that you have what it takes to win the gold. In the different sports the athletes will do all they can to make it to the finish line first despite the odds against them. Lezak felt that the odds were against him as he saw his competitor - Alain Bernard from France - make his flip before him. He began to understand that he was at least a half a body length ahead with 50 meters to go.

“I swear, all these things were in my mind in a couple of seconds,” Lezak said. “And then I realized, ‘This is the Olympics. Let’s go.’” On the other side Michael Phelps was watching all of this thinking that all of his chances to win eight gold medals for his country were gone. It looked like Bernard’s prediction that France would crush Americans was going to come true.

Except a funny thing happened. That half-body-length lead? In about 10 seconds it was down to a quarter-length. And then the width of a head. And then nothing. And then, remarkable, amazingly, astonishingly, inexplicably, Lezak’s fingers touched the wall, exactly 8/100ths of a second before Bernard’s did. Weber-Gale exploded. Jones admitted, “I nearly fell into the pool.” Phelps emitted a primal scream that tried to lift the Cube’s ceiling clear off its hinges.

Phelps understood what all of this meant: he still has a shot at eight gold medals. “His last 50 meters were absolutely incredible,” said Phelps. “He had a perfect finish.” Phelps, remarkably, was the one who needed to be bailed out yesterday, touching the wall during his segment of the race in second place, a quarter of a second behind Australia’s Eamon Sullivan.

And by the time Lezak - nine years Phelps’ senior - jumped into the pool, Bernard was already in there and already sprinting off toward history. Except Lezak covered the final hundred meters in 46.06, which is nearly a second and a half faster than the existing world record. “I’ve never had more adrenaline in my life,” he would say.