400-meter freestyle relay final: It doesn’t get better than this
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BEIJING -- Matt Grevers of Lake Forest, Ill., got a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay even though he watched the final from the seats.
Grevers, who swam in the preliminaries, had told the U.S. coaches to give someone else his place for the final -- which they probably would have done anyway -- to avoid any controversy like the one that occurred over Michael Phelps’ inclusion on the team in the final at the 2004 Olympics, where the U.S. finished third.
To hear him Monday, after winning a silver medal in the 100-meter backstroke, you could only think Grevers was happy to have the vantage point that he did.
‘That was the greatest sports event, not just the greatest swimming event, I have ever seen,’ Grevers said of the 400 freestyle relay.
Sure, that was a swimmer talking. But the end of Monday’s relay was so stunning it already deserves an hour on ESPN Classic.
It was the rare Olympic moment so remarkable that I could appreciate its significance immediately.
The pressure of making deadlines means that I often don’t find the time to savor what I have just seen. Usually it is only after returning home from an Olympics that I begin to sort out the memories in my mind.
This time, the impact was immediate.
I watched Jason Lezak hit the final turn 0.82 seconds behind France’s Alain Bernard -- an eternity with only 50 meters left in a 100-meter race -- and, like NBC announcer Rowdy Gaines, saw no way Lezak could catch the French anchor. I mean, how do you make up that much ground on the world record-holder in so little time?
About halfway through the final lap, I started thinking the impossible had a chance to happen, so quickly was Lezak gaining on a French rival who, statistics revealed later, had swum the opening 50 far too fast.
And it did.
Lezak’s anchor leg was by far the fastest ever. But that wasn’t why this race will go into the Olympic pantheon. It was the context, saving Phelps’ chance for eight gold medals, that gave the outcome such significance.
Grevers said he felt honored to share in the magic.
I just felt lucky to be there. And I can thank Christine Magnuson for my good fortune. Had the swimmer from Tinley Park, Ill., not been swimming the 100 butterfly final Monday morning, my assignment would not have been swimming. And she goes home with a silver medal.
I return with the pleasure of having seen a sporting event so good that nothing written about it will be gilding the lily.
-- Philip Hersh
