These were the times: Phelps 47.51, Gale 47.02, Jones 47.65, Lezak 46.06
Frenchy times: 47.91, 47.05, 46.63, 46.73

Jones wasn't that far off, the French dude just ran a great 3rd leg, Bernard even had a great anchor time too.

I don't know much about swimming, but I have to believe Lezak's performance there has to be one of the great all time efforts in swimming history.

You know, I hate the national anthem when someone sings it, but the arrangement with a full orchestra/band is really nice.

yeah I've heard about the suit, but I'm not stupidly gullible.

Come on, swimming is mostly about physical attributes, so doping will give you a huge advantage.

There have been scandals in the past (east Germans, and more recently Chinese Athletes), but nothing big recently like in track and fields, although the level of performance keep on increasing year after year, even taking into account the effect of the speedos suit.

Ian Thorpe, who was supposedly so great because he was a physical phenom like the world hasnever seen, got caught towards the end of his career, and he was one of the biggest critics of FINA's drug policy!

I m not saying that Phelps is necessarly doping, but o lot of those guys are, and it will probably blow up at one point (like it blew up in the Tour de France).

The new French generation of swimmers is for instance extremely suspicious. French has suddenly become, out of nowhere, one of the best nations in swimming and is able to line up six world class sprinter in the relay!

That time by Lezak is MINDBLOWING.

Same here, I've got 2 TVs going and Brazil-Hungary women's handball going on my computer, can't afford to miss any awesomeness in that match, lol.

Also, the Olympics look so damn good in HD.

vitix- there will be on nbcolympics at some point in the upcoming hours. look in the video section.


Lezak's anchor leg is one of the top swims ever period.
There are some others that come to mind given circumstances etc- but none where it led to something like this and was far better than any expert could have imagined/predicted.

there will be eventually http://www.nbcolympics.com/

it's not so much the relay world record that is suspicious, but more each individual performance that is completly amazing

Who cares, it's not like USA >>> France or any of the other teams who placed. These world records have been getting smashed left and right with the new suits. If you want to think it's something else so be it, but I'm pretty sure the suits should account for the smashing, I don't think a new master drug used by obviously every country in the competition this year was the reason they all ran so well.

People with knowledge of swimming...how much did getting in Bernard's wave shave off his time? Was Lezak's swim the greatest relay leg in history?

And please stop putting shoe polish in your hair you trite little twerp.

I like having this online option. I just saw a great come from behind win by an American in Judo.

No ****, the world record was broken this morning, then in the final like 5 teams beat that record. Must be the doping.

The 5th place team beat the World Record in that race.. It's the suits.. Put away the tinfoil hats.

BTW, cool little side note. When I was watching the replay I noticed Jones standing on the side of the pool looking in on the finishes(as opposed to Phelps and Gale standing at finish cheering on Lezak.

I noticed that the second Lezak touched you see Phelps and Gale and pretty much everyone else looking at the scoreboard, but Jones has already started celebrating at the bottom of the TV. I thought it was cool that he was the only one celebrating while everyone else is looking at the board.

Oh, and Phelps Barbaric Screams FTW.

former D1/US nationals level swimmer here. It's the greatest relay swim in history imo. what the wave really did was allow him to find that last little gear at the end and stay in mostly clean water. hard to say precisely what it contributes. but that performance was just jaw dropping. he looked completely out of the race at the turn.

edit: "on an international stage" in that jugdment. some of the swims by cesar cielo at NCAAs are pretty damn good.

Dam, I feel like that was crack or something because now I want more. I have to say though, what a race to end the night.

This is the sort of awesomeness that I'm afraid I'm missing, damnit.

The Olympics are more addicting than crack. I've been up for 18 hours and I can't go to bed b/c I need to see the USA-Cuba volleyball match.

what an unreal race

you're right, the smashing of the records is probably due to thoses suits but only because they didn't were alraedy doping before those speedo suits.

But, who cares anyway?

I'm just getting mad because of what happened in cyle riding and to a lesser extent track and fields, and everybody still pretending that swimmers are clean and that subject is never brought up.

Wow.. That is very cool.

people get tested for years without getting caught. the masking programs are very advanced.

not that I assume they're all doping. but the way world records get blown away in pretty much all sports (like 5 year old records beat by 10th place finishers) is fishy. but then again it could all be psychological--look at instances, recent and longer ago, when people have fallen down in races and gotten back into them (eg Tour this year, and prior track events). "If you could fall on your butt and still get up and win the race, you should have beaten that record by multiple seconds..."

From the 50s to the 70s to the 90s I could see advancing methods and training. But shouldn't we start to level off at some point by now?

but yeah, the suits, and what the guy above said about the relay--who knows...?

So is any of NBC's cable channels airing any Olympics. Currently watching CBC, but I think NBC does a better job.