If Michael Phelps ends up with 8 gold medals around this neck in Beijing, he’ll have to toast teammate Jason Lezak (with the best French champagne he can find), who dramatically came from behind to edge out France’s Alain Bernard by eight-tenths of a second in the final leg of the 400 meter freestyle relay race. The U.S. team snatched the gold medal with a world record time of 3:08.24. The French took home silver and hefty slice of humble pie. Bernard had earlier predicted a “smashing” of the Americans.
Lezak’s golden stretch at the wall stunned Frenchman Bernard, who stayed in the pool in dazed disbelief as Lezak and his teammates celebrated. Returning the trash talk of Bernard with action, Lezak swam his 100 meter anchor leg in 46.06 seconds, smashing Bernard’s world record of 47.5 seconds. Touché.
Great photo credit: Jack Gruber, USA Today.
