Oh mammy!! OH MAMMMY!!! That was one of the most thrilling Olympic relays I HAVE EVER SEEN!!
The men’s 4×100 freestyle relay — always a favorite of mine. We lost to, I think, South Africa four years ago and Australia eight years ago and this year, the French team was the huge heavy favorite.
Earlier, the 6-5″anchor-leg French swimmer Alain Bernard had trash-talked about the US chances: “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came for.â€
And when the last 100 rolled around, it looked like the French WOULD win. Their giant anchor-leg swimmer in the water, ahead of everybody. At the last turn, Bernard had a half-body length lead over US anchor swimmer Jason Lezak. Even the commentators were saying, “The French are gonna do it. US can’t catch ’em,” etc. Suddenly, Lezak started swimming like a crazy man. A CRAZY MAN. Against this giant. This sure-to-win-trash-talking machine. And he gained on him, unbelievably, like some breakneck runaway train. I could NOT believe my eyes. At the wall, he out-touched the giant, smashed the world record to bits, and STUNNED that trash-talking French team into total silence. Total silence. Michael Phelps, who swam the first leg, went ABSOLUTELY NUTSO! They all went nuts! And Phelps isn’t even the story here, really. No. Jason Lezak — who I think is like 33, old for a swimmer — is the superman here. His was the fastest relay split in history.
Did you see it? Did you see it?? Oh, sweet Moses! So SO spectacular! They just had the medal ceremony and I was bawling.
If you missed it, you missed something truly historic, so please check YouTube or something to see if it’s on there. You HAVE to see it. You must. It’s your duty as an American, I’m telling you. It’s inspiring. Thrilling. Find it and watch it. You will be absolutely soaring at the end.
Oh, I love the Olympics! I need the Olympics right now.
that was so awesome
Oh yeah, I was holding my breath the whole time! That was awesome. The commentators and the trash-talking French had to eat their words. Ha.
Oh yes. I saw! I lost my voice screaming (as if they could hear me all the way in China).
Awesome! This is why I watch the games.
It was pretty late here, so I missed the medal ceremony. Hopefully I can find that on YouTube.
🙂
I felt like the commentators were trying to be realistic, you know? I remember one of them saying right before the race, “I’ve added this up every possible way in the last few weeks and it always comes out France.” It was fun — and I think for them, too — to hear them suddenly singing a different tune in the last 25 yards of that race. They had no idea what was coming either. Haha! I loved it! It was after midnight over here and I was screaming bloody murder, all by my little self! It was so exhilarating!
I TiVo’d it last night, and watched it before work this morning. It was AMAZING! I can’t wait to get home and watch the medals ceremony tonight!
Hear, hear. I was hollering and whooping and having a fit in my living room watching that spectacular race. I agree — I need these Olympics, too. It’s always fun to become a couch “expert” on sports again every four years. hehe
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
GraD — (I don’t know how to abbreviate your name. I don’t wanna use GD!) But, yeah, I love becoming a couch expert, as you said. Although we all probably have our areas where we’re pretty knowledgeable based on the sports we grew up with or around. We’re a tennis/swim/water polo family, so those are my areas of, uh, “expertise.” (Also football, but that’s not an Olympic sport.)
So yes, please, NBC, let me offer my color commentary on water polo, ‘mkay?
Watched it today during lunch. DEYAMN! .08 seconds!!!
It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen, truly.
I want to own it on DVD. Seriously.