Weekend Watch: 2008 Olympics 4x100 freestyle relay final
April 17th, 2020
With nearly every major sports league suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans around the world are yearning for a return to normalcy.
The sports we love will be back, but in the interim, as we wait out the virus that has turned our world upside down, it's important to stay connected to the games we love.
Our Weekend Watch feature touches on the most significant moments in sports history, and luckily for us in this modern age, many of them are viewable online, in their entirety.
2008 Olympic men's swimming 4x100 freestyle relay final
Michael Phelps should be picking up checks for Jason Lezak for the rest of their lives.
Phelps, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, won eight gold medals in Beijing. That gave him the record for most golds in an Olympics, but without Lezak, Phelps would be tied with Mark Spitz at seven.
Lezak's surge to out-touch France's Alain Bernard by a fingernail in the closing leg was so unbelievable that even the lovable homer Rowdy Gaines didn't think it was possible.
"I just don't think he can do it," Gaines said as Lezak dropped almost a full body length behind after the first 25 meters of the final leg.
But Lezak was one of the most experienced swimmers in the pool. He rode Bernard's leading wave after the turn, and about 20 yards from the finish, we all started to believe.
Lezak swam the fastest relay leg in swimming history (46.06 seconds. The margin was a 0.08 seconds, and the underwater shot showed the finish was unimaginably close. The victory was even sweeter because the French were favored, and Bernard said in the lead-up to the race that the French would "smash" the Americans.
Even so, it was hard not to feel for Bernard, who was despondent and wouldn't get out of the pool, in apparent shock.
Bernard got his revenge two days later, when he defeated Lezak (third) to win the gold in the individual 100 free, but we view things with a red, white, and blue lens here at BetAmerica.
Now jump into the pool and get ready for some goosebumps. The water is fine.