What a race! Lezak keeps Phelps' hopes alive

BEIJING (AP) — With history about to slip away and Michael Phelps cheering him on, Jason Lezak pulled up next to the lane rope and set out after hulking Alain Bernard, like a NASCAR driver drafting down the backstretch at Daytona.

Only 25 meters to go, half the length of the pool. Every stroke brought Lezak a little closer, a little closer, a little closer, his body seemingly carried along by the Frenchman's massive wake. The two lunged for the wall together. When the result flashed on the board, Phelps was still on course for his record eight gold medals.

By a fingertip.

Lezak, the oldest man on the U.S. swimming team, pulled off one of the great comebacks in Olympic history Monday morning, hitting the wall just ahead of Bernard in the 400 freestyle relay, a race so fast it actually erased two world records.

Few sporting events live up to the hype — this one exceeded it. The 32-year-old Lezak was nearly a body length behind Bernard as they made the final turn, but the American hugged the lane rope and stunningly overtook him on the very last stroke.

Wow!

"This has been happening my whole career," Lezak said. "People have gotten on my lane line and sucked off of me, so I figured this is the one opportunity in my whole career to do that."

Watching on deck, Phelps let out a resounding "Yeaaaaaah!" and thrust both arms toward the roof of the Water Cube. His quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals had survived what will likely be its toughest test — and almost certainly its most thrilling.

The Americans shattered the world record set by their "B" team the previous evening in the preliminaries, touching with a time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds — nearly 4 full seconds below the 15-hour-old mark of 3:12.23.

"Unbelievable," said Phelps, who swam the leadoff leg and then became the team's biggest cheerleader. "Jason finished that race better than we could even ask for. I was fired up. Going into that last 50, I was like, 'Aw, this is going to be a close race.' Jason's last 10 or 15 meters were incredible."

The Americans won the relay at seven straight Olympics, but watched the Australians and South Africans take gold at the last two games.

"You could tell I was pretty excited," Phelps said. "I lost my voice and I was definitely pretty emotional out there."

Bernard was the world record holder in the 100, but he surrendered that mark as well. Australia's Eamon Sullivan broke the individual record by swimming the leadoff leg in 47.24 — ahead of Bernard's mark of 47.50.