Cullen Jones touched the wall, knowing he'd delivered the lead to
Ryan Lochte with 100 meters to go. Jones told himself, Get out of the pool so
you don't miss the pictures.
That's how
sure Jones was - and how close the American men were to winning the 4x100-meter
freestyle relay Sunday night at the London Aquatics Centre.
But Lochte
got beat by a 46.74-second anchor leg by France's Yannick Agnel, who
out-touched the American at the wall. The stunning comeback was nearly a mirror
image of what American anchor Jason Lezak did to the French freestylers back in
2008.
"I can
definitely appreciate irony," Jones said. "To a certain degree, I was
like, 'Ooh, payback.' "
Agnel's
anchor leg wasn't quite historic (like Lezak's 46.06), but Jones called it
'superman-level.'
"(Agnel)
has always scared me because he looks so good in the water, and he's 6-7,"
U.S. assistant coach Eddie Reese said. "Is 'pissed me off' legal to say? I
didn't like it but I give him credit. He was awesome."
The
Americans ended up with the silver medal, which was largely what was expected
of them entering these Games. Russia claimed bronze, and the Australians, heavy
favorites in the 4x100 free relay, didn't end up on the podium.
Ultimately,
the race was the Americans' to lose. They had the lead from the start, and
didn't lose it until the final 50.
Nathan
Adrian beat the world's best 100-meter freestyler, Australian James Magnussen,
in the first leg (47.89) to give the U.S. a slim lead. Michael Phelps then swam
the Americans' fastest split (47.15) and extended that lead to nearly
three-quarters of a second.
"Nathan
swam a great opening leg," said Phelps, who added that he'd been
practicing relay exchanges from Adrian for awhile. "It put us out in the
open water and I just tried to give us even more open water."
The lead
dwindled to about half a second by the end of Jones' leg, but the swimmers all
felt confident that margin was enough for Lochte to bring home the gold.
When it
didn't work, the composition and order of the relay was questioned. None of the
freestylers who swam in Sunday morning's preliminary heat were chosen to
compete in the final, including Matt Grevers who had the fastest split (47.54,
two-tenths of a second faster than Lochte's).
Lochte
didn't swim the 100 free at trials last month, and his personal coach said
after that Lochte's inexperience with the event led him to overswim the first
50 meters.
But the
coaches went with Lochte, fresh off his 400-meter individual medley gold medal,
as well as Phelps, who desperately needed to rebound from his disappointing
fourth-place finish in the 400 IM. Live and die with your stars, the motto
appeared to be.
"We
discussed it and looked at all possible angles, and this is what we came up
with," U.S. coach Gregg Troy said. Troy said he wouldn't have changed the
order of the relay.
Said Lochte:
"We had our best four guys, and we went out there to win it, but we came
up short."
All four
Americans posted splits under 48 seconds, a point that Jones emphasized to show
that it was a strong relay overall. The U.S. team had a strategy to neutralize
the greatest threat on the Australian team, but couldn't foresee the late push
by the French. "You can't predict a 46.7," Jones put it.
Dating back
to 1964 (excluding the boycotted 1980 Games), the Americans have medaled in every
Olympic 4x100 free relay since the event debuted in 1964. But in the last four
Olympics, the U.S. has won just one gold - the Lezak leg in 2008.
"The
world's getting faster," Jones said. "That race has never been easy
for us. 2000, 2004, 2008 - it's never been easy. Now, we can add 2012 - still,
not easy."
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