Well, it sure was a thrill for this "coach" to see the incredible determination and grit of the USA's 400 Free Relay last night in Beijing. It may be hard for people to imagine just what a big boost this was for the sport in this country. What? Coach, are you nuts, the USA has dominated this sport for decades!
True, there were years there where if we didn't sweep an event, we were slacking. You didn't see any "third world" countries represented in the Olympics (I doubt if Zimbabwe, for instance, even HAD any Olympic size pools until the last 20 years. Now they have one of the most dominating female swimmers in the world -- Kirsty Coventry. Coventry did her college swimming at Auburn University) Today, the US sometimes has a difficult time getting a swimmer onto the medal platform, as happened last night in the 100 breastroke, where the defending Olympic champion was shut out.
There has been plenty of speculation about the "decline" of US swimming, but most of the difference is the rise of the rest of the world and the welcome proliferation of facilities and experienced coaching. Others speculate that American swimmers are less likely to be willing to sacrifice "a life" to the incredible conditioning and mental focus required to be successful at the world level. In many countries, success in sports is a way for a family to rise above poverty. In the US, there are so many distractions that become road blocks to winning at an Olympic games. Add the fierce attention of the US media and the pressure on US athletes will quickly separate the champions from the also-rans.
But there was something about Sunday night's US freestyle relay that was written as if for a Hollywood movie. There, on the blocks, leading off, was Michael Phelps. Phelps has been touted by the television suits as the next Mark Spitz (and well on the way to living up to that moniker). The US had dominated this event for years until the hometown Aussies took it from them in Sydney in 2000 and the US team had taken a bitter pill in a bronze medal at Athens in 2004. Relay anchorman Jason Lezak had felt the disappointment of the silver medal race in Sydney and had been on that bronze medal Athens team, as had Phelps, and Lezak stated after the race that he had determined that he was NOT going through that again.
The French were the favorites going into the finals. Former 100 meter freestyle world record holder Alain Bernard had shot his mouth off about the race stating, "we are going to smash the Americans. That is what we have come here for." Don't count "le poulet" before it hatches, Alain.
As Bernard took off to complete the French triumph, Lezak seemed too far behind to catch the 6'5" Frenchman. Bernard, called Le Cheval(the Horse) by his countrymen, seemed to throw a shoe in the last 25 meters as the 32 year-old Lezak cast his walker and cane aside as he caught Bernard at the wall by 8/100s of a second.
What was Lezak thinking down the stretch? The years of frustration? The agony of the silver at Sydney and the bronze at Athens?
"I'm not going to lie," Lezak said. "When I flipped at the 50 and I still saw how far ahead he was, and he was the world-record holder 'til about two minutes before that, when Sullivan led off with the world record, I thought, it really crossed my mind for a split second, there's no way.
"Then I changed. I said, you know what, that's ridiculous. This is the Olympics. I'm here for these guys. I'm here for the United States of America. It's more than -- I don't care how bad it hurts, or whatever, I'm just going to go out there and hit it.
"Honestly, in like 5 seconds, I was thinking all these things -- you know, just got like a super charge and took it from there. It was unreal."
Yea, old man. This Perrier's for you!
Coach
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