Men's 400 Free Relay Redux

So I've watched this race about 30 times in the last 12 hours at nbcolympics.com. If you haven't seen it again go HERE. You need to download Microsoft Silverlight but its completely worth it.

I think the most exciting thing about the race is the excitement Dan Hicks showed in his call of the last five meters of the race. I can only imagine Hicks and Rowdy Gaines jumping up and down and hugging each other after the race. READ: this is not homerism. Hicks and Gaines are the announcers for the United States broadcast of the swimming events. Their job is to report what is going on in the pool but to make it exciting for the viewers in the United States. Their call of that race was no different than Harry Kalas getting excited about a Chase Utley home run or Merrill Reese "going crazy" after David Akers hits a game winning field goal for the Eagles.

Jason Lezak was beyond amazing on the end of that relay. First off, his start was as good as it can be. Looking at the meet results, his reaction time was .04, that's about as close to false starting as you can get. But when it comes to relay starts, coming as close as possible to false starting makes it a great relay start. Lezak swam the perfect race, getting on the lane line and letting Bernard carry him through the first 50. Its pretty obvious that Bernard over swam the first 25 and Lezak really started to catch him going into the flags at the turn. But check out the underwater video at the finish: Bernard's hips are really flying out of his line. This is a clear sign that he was completely out of gas and trying to do everything he could to miracle his body to that wall. Lezak's split was an unreal 46.06, the fastest 100 freestyle relay split ever by .63. Bernard's relay split was a almost-as-fast 46.73, the fourth fastest 100 freestyle relay split of all time.