The Greatest 46.00 Seconds in Olympic History
At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics) swimmer Michael Phelps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Phelps) set his sights on breaking what many thought was an unbreakable record established by Mark Spitz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Spitz) at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany: the accumulation of 7 gold medals by one athlete in a single Olympics. Many will remember the 2008 Games for Phelps’ achievement of that remarkable goal. I, however, will remember the 2008 Olympics for the anchor leg of the Men’s 4 x 100M Freestyle Relay. I will remember it not because it would become the second jewel in Phelps’ eventual collection of 8 gold medals. I will remember it because it (and the journey of Jason Lezak leading up to it) crammed more life lessons into 46.00 seconds than I could hope to capture in a lifetime of blogging. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest moments in Olympic history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Lezak). If you ever get the chance to see the entirety of Bud Greenspan’s piece on the event and Jason Lezak, I encourage you to watch it. Unfortunately, only the second half of the segment is available on YouTube, so it will have to do for the time being:
“I remember thinking: There is no way I can catch this guy. I just have to finish this race as hard as I can.”
