Sunday, November 21, 2010

The 200 Fly

This is my race.  The 200 fly is what I set a world record in seven years ago.  I had enormous expectations for myself in Beijing for this race.  As I was standing on the blocks getting ready to start this race though, my goggles were bothering me.  I had no time to fix it.  This was my race that I am expected to win by a landslide.  This is what I have been working on throughout my swimming career.  An assistant swimming coach for Michigan saw something was wrong from their television in Norway.  As the beep went off, I dove immediately in.  The goggles started leaking right away.  I was just worried about going fast at this point.  After 50, I thought the leak wouldn’t be that bad and mess up my vision or anything.  At 100, though, everything started getting blurry more and more.  With about 75 meters to go, I couldn’t see anything.  This is where all my training is put into place.  I had been taught that there is a regular progression of strokes from leg to leg.  The final leg would have about 19 or 20 strokes.  I started counting during the third leg.  I nailed the turn perfectly.  It was all out now to the final wall.  I hit stroke twenty and wasn’t at the wall.  I just glided toward the wall after the 21st stroke.  I immediately took my caps and goggles off and blinked like crazy to be able to see.  Once my vision returned, I saw my name next to the number 1.  It was also a world record time of 1:52.03.  Four golds down, four more to go.

The 200 Freestyle

Two gold medals into the Beijing Olympics for me and it was already shaping up to be a great adventure.  I don’t think there would be a tougher race than my third one though, the 200 freestyle.  This was the same race that keep my from my eight gold medals four years ago in Athens.  A guy by the name of Ian Thorpe managed to grab gold, while I settled for bronze.  That loss drove me to train harder than before.  I did not like losing like most people, but something about that race made me more determined than any other loss before it.  Ian and I never raced again after that race in Athens.  Ian retired from swimming because he was no longer motivated to swim.  I wasn’t going to let that stop me from my goals.  I was still determined to redeem myself in this race and get that third gold medal.  After the beep sounded, I swam out to an early lead.  I hit the 100 wall in 50.29 seconds.  After three turns, I was almost two full seconds ahead of Peter Vanderkaay.  I took that lead with me all the way home to the finish.  I finished in world record time also: 1:42.96.  The guy that got second, Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea, finished 1.89 seconds behind me.  That was the biggest margain of victory in the 200 free in Olympic history.  Three for three.


The 100 Fly

This was the race that tied me with Mark Spitz with seven gold medals, the 100 fly.  Another butterfly stroke race.  I was ready to get the win.  During my prelim, I noticed that Milorad Cavic of Serbia was looking really strong in this race.  He finished with an Olympic record, 50.76.  I came in a close second with a time of 50.87.  We both knew, along with just about everyone else, that we were in store for a darn good race for this gold medal.  I had won this race in Athens by four hundredths of a second.  It has always been a close race.  At Montreal in 2005, I was completely murdered in this race by over a second.  It was at that point that I realized I could easily be beaten at any time and to never overlook someone or a race just because I am good at it.  I was ready to go.  Beep!  When I turned, I was in seventh place overall out of eight.  Not exactly what was desired.  Cavic turned first.  Halfway through the back stretch I caught back up to the leaders.  I always have a really strong kick at the end.  With about 15 meters to go, Cavic could sense me creeping in behind him.  We were neck and neck.  We both hurtled toward the wall, but there was only one difference.  Cavic decided to glide in.  I chopped in one more stroke.  I looked up at the board and next to my name had the number.....1.  I did it!  I beat Cavic by one hundredth of a second.  The absolute smallest margin there has ever been or will ever be!  I tied Spitz. Seven gold medals out of seven finals.  One more for greatness.

The 400 Free Relay

There was a lot of hype building up to this race.  It was my second race of mine at Beijing, the 400 free relay.  Just four years ago in Athens we had came in third behind the Dutch and the gold medal winners, the South Africans.  I was determined to fix that after this race.  We knew this would be a fast race right off the bat.  Six teams swam under the world record during the prelims.  We were ready. Bring it on.  I started the relay out in lane 4, the fast lane.  I had the second-fastest swimmer in the 50 going against me in the leadoff leg.  My goal was to stay with him.  After 25 meters, he was already half a body length ahead of me.  I didn’t win the leg, but I got us in second place, behind the Australians.  Right after I touched, I jumped out of the water and started cheering for my guys!  Garrett, who swam second, got us up to first place.  But less than a second separated the top three teams; Australia, French, and the US.  Cullen took off for the third leg.  He had a really good leg, but it just so happens that he went against France’s Bousquet, who just swam a 46.63 split in the prelims the night before.  That is the fastest split in history.  Jason, our anchor, then took off after the French captain, Bernard.  At the turn, Jason was down almost a full body length, but as the race progressed on that final straightaway, Jason somehow caught up to him and manage to surpass the mighty French swimmer.  I looked up to the board and saw the number one right next to the United States.  2nd gold medal race couldn’t have been any better or closer.