Lezak and His Mother Enjoy His Big Day

Jason Lezak perched himself on his mother Linda’s lap, an act he might have taken for granted five weeks ago. But Friday, after an impressive victory in the 50-meter freestyle at the Speedo Grand Challenge at Heritage Aquatics Park, it was an appropriate place for Lezak to be.

It was Linda Lezak’s first big outing since being released from a hospital last Saturday, and Jason gave his mom quite a show. Trailing Roland Schoeman of the Phoenix Swim Club in the first 25 meters, Lezak, of the Irvine Novaquatics, pulled ahead in the final 20 meters as he passed his mother’s wheelchair at the side of the pool. He won the race in 22.67 seconds, breaking his own meet record of 23.09, set last year.

“He had to have sucked it up,” Linda Lezak said. “He was unhappy with his times in the preliminaries when he came home. So we just left him alone.”

Linda was involved in a traffic collision in Northern California on April 20. She spent four weeks in the hospital, two of those at Stanford in a drug-induced coma. The next two weeks were spent at Mission Hospital recovering from a broken nose, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken clavicle, a shattered pelvis, a broken sacrum and a ruptured bladder.

Jason Lezak, who won a gold and a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics, has spent the last five weeks caring for his mother when he wasn’t training for the World Championships in Japan in July. He skipped the recent Colorado Springs training camp to be at his mother’s side.

“He thought I wasn’t going to come today,” Linda Lezak said. “But nothing was going to keep me at home. He won this for me. I know he did.”

Four other meet records were broken on the first day of the three-day event. Chad Carvin of the Mission Viejo Nadadores won two events, setting a meet record in the 200 individual medley in 2:07.36. It surpassed the mark of 2:07.43 set by Brad Bridgewater last year. Carvin also won the 400 freestyle in 3:57.00.

Maggie Bowen of Auburn University set the women’s 200 individual medley record in 2:15.80, and Tara Kirk of Stanford set the 100 breaststroke record in her preliminary race in 1:10.33. Natalie Coughlin, the NCAA swimmer of the year at California, broke the 200 backstroke mark, winning in 2:16.38. The previous mark was set last year by Diana MacManus of the Novas. MacManus finished second in 2:18.09.

Daniel Kim of the Novas won the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.43, and Aaron Peirsol, also a Nova, easily won the 200 backstroke in 2:03.47, three seconds ahead of his competition.