It’s good to know you’ve got friends.
You know how it is – you splash around in the pool, get good at it, enter the Olympics at 15, get six gold medals four years later and then try again for eight this time round. Happens to us all.
American swimmer Michael Phelps already had one in the bag, but for his next race he had his three team mates to rely on in the 4X100m freestyle. The French had their own agenda: “The Americans? We’re going to smash them” they said in an unusually arrogant way. Would Phelps’ dream of beating the great Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single Games be over so soon?
Look – if you haven’t seen it yet just go the Internet, look on BBC TV or something and just watch it. Then come back here.
Finished?
How the heck did anchor Jason Lezak overhaul the French in the last length?!!!
How much did they thrash the previous record?
Fact: Great Britain’s time would have won the gold medal in Athens four years ago. Today, they finished eighth. That’s how fast that race was.
I struggle to even daydream of the amount of golds Phelps had got before that race, but just look at his reation when his mate touched the end first to snatch the gold for USA and keep him on track for the clean sweep. Whether he goes on and does it, only time will tell, but methinks we’ve just seen one of the iconic images of the Games.
Of course I couldn’t mention the Olympics and swimming without tipping my (swimming) hat to the GB girls Rebecca Adlington and Jo “no ‘Stepping Out’ jokes please” Jackson. Respect to the gold and bronze, and a great comeback over the last twenty metres to pull off a stunning win. After all that training and effort, the difference was simply that Adlington had her fingers straight as they approached the finish whilst second-place Hoff had hers pointing upwards, losing vital fractions of a second.
Keep the medals coming…