WHAT YOU MISSED LAST NIGHT:
A rousing finish to a busy night in the pool. In the final race of the evening at the Water Cube, the United States’ underdog 4×100-meter freestyle relay team came from behind to capture gold in world-record time and preserve Michael Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals in Beijing. Relay anchor Jason Lezak, the squad’s 32-year-old veteran, swam the fastest relay leg in history (46.06 seconds, 0.73 seconds faster than the previous best) to chase down France’s closer, Alain Bernard, and out-touch him at the wall by 0.08 seconds. Bernard, who had boasted in the prerace buildup that the French would “smash” the Americans, was the world-record holder in the 100 free and had a half-second lead on Lezak when he entered the water. But Lezak managed to catch him in the final meters and beat him to the wall, giving the American men their first gold in the 4×100 since 1996.
“I was really tired of losing,” Lezak told NBC in the postrace interview. “I need to bring this back to the U.S.”
The U.S. shattered the previous world record in the event, set by its B-team in the event semifinals, by 3.99 seconds in finishing in 3:08.24. France won silver with a time of 3:08.32; Australia took the bronze.
“We love hearing other people talk stuff about us because it just fuels us,” said Bronx native Cullen Jones, who swam the third leg, of the French smack talk. “We don’t say anything till it’s over.”
Phelps, who thanks to Lezak’s heroics is still alive in his quest to surpass Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in one Olympics, swam leadoff. He posted an American-record time for his 100 but lagged behind Australia’s Eamon Sullivan, who broke Bernard’s world record with his opening leg. Phelps was followed by Garrett Weber-Gale and Jones, who watched the French take the lead but kept it close enough to give Lezak a chance.
“The four of us put together a pretty good race, a pretty near perfect race,” Phelps said afterward.
In other swimming action, American multiple-medal threat Katie Hoff suffered a heartbreaking loss in the 400 freestyle and settled for silver. Hoff led through 375 meters but seemed to tire at the end and was edged by Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain.
And the expected duel between American Brendan Hansen and Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima in the 100 breaststroke never quite materialized. Kitajima powered through the second 50 to break Hansen’s world record and claim gold. Hansen finished off the medal stand in fourth.
In other action around Beijing, the U.S. women’s basketball team moved to the top of Group B this morning with a 108-63 pasting of China. Tina Thompson led the team with 27 points, 13 of which came during a 23-0 first-quarter run…The American beach volleyball tandem of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser rebounded from a surprising loss in their opening pool play match with an easy win over the Swiss team on Monday morning…Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Roger Federer cruised through their opening-round matches in the tennis singles tournaments…The U.S. women’s volleyball team fell to Cuba, 3-0, but the U.S. women’s water polo team beat China, 12-11…As of 9 a.m. this morning, China held a 14-12 medal edge over the United States, with a commanding 9-3 edge in gold medals…
WHAT TO WATCH TONIGHT:
Phelps, with two down and six to go, swims for his third gold in the finals of the 200 free (NBC, 10:16 p.m.). The hardest part of Phelps’ schedule (the 400 individual medley and last night’s relay) may be complete, but the 200 free is one of the events in which gold eluded him in Athens. Since taking bronze four years ago, though, Phelps has established himself as the heavy favorite for Beijing, setting the world record at the 2007 world championships.
400 free winner Taehwan Park of Korea and American Peter Vanderkaay are Phelps’ primary challengers.
Both 100 backstroke finals also are tonight.
American Aaron Peirsol is favored to repeat on the men’s side (10:31 p.m.) and multitalented Natalie Coughlin will be in the thick of things in the women’s race (10:23 p.m.). She’ll be pushed by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, but keep an eye on U.S. backstroke specialist Margaret Hoelzer.
For the hydrophobic, tonight brings the team final in men’s gymnastics (10:00 p.m.). The Chinese team, led by world champion Yang Wei, should come out on top in front of the home crowds. The United States, depleted without injured stars Paul and Morgan Hamm, is one of a handful of squads thinking upset. Should China falter, Japan or Russia, or even the dark-horse U.S. team, could step up to gold.