Sorry if this has been posted somewhere else, but....
If you did not see the men's 4 x 100 swimming relay, it was absolutely incredible!!! The French were highly favored to win and even boasted by saying "they were going to smash the Americans...that's what they were here (at the Olympics) for." Here's the video at nbcolympics.com
Who else saw it and what were your reactions? My wife and I were saying on that last lap "It's over" and then when the U.S. started catching up we were yelling "Come on!" If you watch the video, listen how wild the crowd gets the last 25-50m of the race. The commentators had all but given the French the gold until the last 25 m and then they started going crazy. The U.S. won by 8 hundreths of a second and shattered the world record by 4 seconds!
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"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." - Master Oogway- "Kung Fu Panda"
"You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again...what don't kill ya, make ya more strong" - Broken, Beat & Scarred -Metallica
My lady was a swimmer and high school and I was pretty sure I was never going to get into it, but man oh man! That was SUCH an exciting sporting event. That's a pretty huge moment in all of sports history, not just Olympics!
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So that means the French also beat the World Record.
I think it's great that we (America) got the gold and WR, but we didn't stomp anyone. 8/100's of a second was the length of a hand. If the French swimmer hadn't swung his right arm forward and just reached with his left, he'd have touched first.
Almost, I'd say we got lucky.
I guess with all the posts I've seen on many forums, I expected we beat them by a few seconds. There was FIVE teams faster than the last world record.
All the world records got shattered across many swims due to new suit technology as well as many other factors... the magnitude of the win is increased due to it keeping Phelp's dream for 8 golds alive, the French trashtalking prior to and the fact that it was come from behind at the last split second... it was a hell of a comeback, the French anchor just couldn't hold on and the American's stole the medal... all together pretty fuckin impressive.
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All I was saying is that that was the fastest 4 x 100 run. I never said or implied that we stomped anyone. Like you said most of the field was ahead of the world record line. It's the simple fact that the French were heavily favored and the U.S. swan with a lot of heart and determination to win that event. It took everything they had. I also agree that it was the reach that won it. It didn't matter who had won it, the leading teams were 4 seconds ahead of the WR pace.
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"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." - Master Oogway- "Kung Fu Panda"
"You rise, you fall, you're down, then you rise again...what don't kill ya, make ya more strong" - Broken, Beat & Scarred -Metallica