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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