Olympics: Time Sink

Updating the blog over the past several days has taken a back seat to watching the Olympics.  Trying to get back on track now.  However, before getting back into updates on our family events, I have to pause to comment on the swimming competition we have seen so far from Beijing. 

Now, what we are seeing from Michael Phelps is truly spectacular.  He is a once in a generation, perhaps once in a lifetime athlete.  However, the best performance we will see in these Olympics will not be any swim by Phelps; or Natalie Coughlin, Katie Hoff or any of the others who got all the (well-deserved) pre-Games hype.  Instead, the best swim we will see at these Games, and perhaps the most remarkable swim any of us will ever see, occurred during my personal favorite event -- the men's 4x100 freestyle relay -- and was turned in by someone that only swimming geeks had ever heard of before Sunday night.  If you did not see this, go find it on nbcolympics.com and watch.  The anchor leg by Jason Lezak for the American team was absolutely phenomenal.  Lezak entered the water for his swim a full six tenths of a second behind the French anchor, world record holder Alain Bernard.  That's a huge time differential against anyone, but against this guy, it obviously meant game over, right?  Wrong.

Lezak swam the perfect race; a race far beyond anything he'd ever done before; the kind of race that, in my experience, can only happen in the team dynamic of a relay event.  Lezak used his experience, and pure will, to triumph over Bernard's suprerior talent, but relative lack of experience.  Bernard clearly took the race out too fast -- his stroke tempo was that of the 50 meter free all out sprint, not the 100, where you have to hold at least a little something back.  Bernard also drifted over to the side of the lane nearest Lezak, allowing the American to catch a healthy draft until, with about 10 meters to go, and Bernard tying up, he was able to slingshot even with, and then just ahead of the French swimmer at the wall.

I would not believe it if I had not seen it.