Phelps Wins 1st Gold; Sets World Record

It was funny when the anthem cut out halfway, but otherwise, Phelps was amazing.

 

yes，Phelps is the best， i think he will win the 7 gold medals in 2008 Beijing olympic game。

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hunter @ Aug 10 2008, 09:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (yinets1860 @ Aug 10 2008, 07:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>yes，Phelps is the best， i think he will win the 7 gold medals in 2008 Beijing olympic game。</div>

Which one do you think he won't get?
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i don‘t know，i think win the 8 gold medals is very diffcult，he will be very tired。

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hunter @ Aug 10 2008, 11:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Please tell me I wasn't the only one who just watched that 4 x 100 Mens Free Relay.....unbelievable....go Team USA!</div>

As soon as I can get footage of that, those screams are going in my sig. USA! USA! USA! USA!

 

I love how the French talked so much smak before the race. USA! USA! USA!

 

good news Phelps win his 2 gold medals......hehe

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hunter @ Aug 10 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Please tell me I wasn't the only one who just watched that 4 x 100 Mens Free Relay.....unbelievable....go Team USA!</div>
Holy hell that was an incredible race. There were 3 teams above the world record line. And the comeback was unbelievable.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Aug 11 2008, 01:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hunter @ Aug 10 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Please tell me I wasn't the only one who just watched that 4 x 100 Mens Free Relay.....unbelievable....go Team USA!</div>
Holy hell that was an incredible race. There were 3 teams above the world record line. And the comeback was unbelievable.
</div>

Yeah pretty incredible, we won by a fingertip.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Lezak lifts U.S. in ‘best ever’ relay

By Charles Robinson, Yahoo! Sports

BEIJING – Jason Lezak churned like an unstoppable nuclear submarine, redlining to complete an impossible mission.

He pummeled the last 50 meters of water, dilating fans’ pupils and scorching their veins with adrenaline and sucking their torsos forward in their seats. He churned straight for Garrett Weber-Gale, who was cursing and howling and pounding on the starting blocks. He charged toward Cullen Jones, who jumped so frantically that he almost slipped and fell into the pool. And he roared past U.S. coach Eddie Reese, who was being squeezed nearly to death by one of his assistants.

And in the last meter of the greatest relay race in the history of the Olympics, Lezak grazed his outstretched fingertip on the wall just ahead of France’s Alain Bernard, who last week boasted of “smashing” the Americans in this event. When Reese tried to capture the moment later, he thought for a second and shook his head.

“It would have to be in the unbelievable category,” he said. “That’s the biggest word I know.”

That sounded about right, as fans milled around the Water Cube shaking their heads in disbelief, with dazed smiles, as if to say, Did that just happen?

Label it inconceivable, unimaginable or impossible. Just don’t expect the description to stick for long. The swimming world will be swapping out superlatives for ages on this one. Five – five – of the teams that took part in Monday’s 4x100 relay final beat the word record set by the United States in the preliminary round. And the new world record established by Lezak, Weber-Gale, Jones and Michael Phelps cut 3.99 seconds off the former mark.



That alone might have made it the greatest race in relay history. But this one had the feel of a Hollywood script – the kind that would never make it to the movie screen simply because it bent reality too far. From Phelps’ second gold hanging in the balance, to Bernard’s pre-race boast, to the United States struggling to regain supremacy in an event it once owned, this one had the makings of greatness before the swimmers took to the starting blocks.

And just when it seemed it couldn’t get any better, the Americans and French dueled in an epic final 100 meters. A final leg that pitted Lezak – who was the anchor on America’s disappointing 2000 and 2004 4x100-meter freestyle relay teams – against Bernard, who was the world-record holder in the 100-meter freestyle going into the event. Bernard lost that record in the first 100 of the race when Australia’s Eamon Sullivan opened with a 47.24 leg, grabbing Bernard’s record.

But it was Lezak who would deliver the deepest cut to the French. With Phelps and Weber-Gale coming out fast, the United States fell behind in the third 100 meters, with Cullen Jones touching the wall over six-tenths of a second behind the French. By the time Lezak made his final turn, that gap had grown to .82 seconds, a virtual eternity in a 50-meter sprint. But just when the race appeared to be over – NBC commentator Rowdy Gaines actually called the race for the French with about 60 meters left – Lezak pulled off the fastest 100-meter split in the history of the games: 46.06 seconds.

“It had to be the best ever and it was the best ever,” Reese said. “That’s the kind of anchor you dream of. … When you put the world-record holder in on the end of a relay and you go into the pool behind him, the chance of you beating him is slim and none. There’s never been (a 50 meters like that) in my memory – not running down somebody that holds a world record and that’s on their game. That was incredible.”

Incredible and sweet for the 32-year-old Lezak, who had pulled the team together in a meeting a few days before the race and talked about his 2000 and 2004 failures. The Americans already knew the tales by heart. Until 2000, the United States had never lost the 4x100 freestyle. That was before the Sydney Games, when Gary Hall Jr. rolled out a proclamation even more colorful than Bernard’s, saying of a powerful Australian 4x100 team: “We’ll smash them like guitars.” The Americans lost the gold by .19 seconds that year, and the Australians mockingly played air guitars atop the medal stand.

Then came 2004, when the U.S. could only muster a bronze after finishing behind South Africa and a Cinderella Netherlands quartet. In that race, Phelps swam a subpar 100, and his ailing teammate, Ian Crocker, had the slowest leg of any of the 32 swimmers in the finals.
BEIJING - AUGUST 11: Jason Lezak of the United States poses with the gold medal during the medal ceremony for the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay held at the National Aquatics Center on Day 3 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
BEIJING - AUGUST 11: Jason Lez…
Getty Images - Aug 11, 1:27 am EDT

In both of those years, the Americans were considered the prohibitive favorite. A far cry from these games, when France’s powerful foursome of Bernard, Amaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot and Frederick Bousquet were considered the toast of the 4x100 relay. Knowing that, Lezak dusted off some painful memories and pointed out what the Americans had learned the hard way over the last two games: favorites fall hard.

“I could see on his face the pain of losing something like that,” Weber-Gale said of the meeting.

And when it came down to the last 50 meters, and Lezak had to do the unthinkable and make up a half-body length, Weber-Gale could only think the Americans had found the right person in the right moment.

“I was just thinking to myself, if there’s anyone on this team or in the world that is going to do it, it was going to be Jason,” he said.

Yet for a split second, when Lezak made his final turn and saw Bernard so far ahead, he said he briefly thought “there’s no way,” before deciding to just blow out his remaining energy and hope for the best. He pulled his body as close as possible to Bernard’s lane, drafting behind him for 25 meters, and then swiftly made up the last few inches, digging and kicking and reaching for the wall. And when it was over, the team exploded in unison, flexing and leaping and exorcising eight years of – as Reese put it – getting “spanked” in freestyle relays.

It was a euphoric moment that had roots earlier in the day, from when Phelps sought out Weber-Gale to tell him of Bernard’s acidic boast: “The Americans? We’re going to smash them.”

“It fired me up more than anything else,” Phelps said. “I told Garrett and he said ‘You know what? We’re going to let our swimming do the talking. ‘ ”</div>

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good news Phelps win his 3 gold medals......hehe