The 400 Free Relay

There was a lot of hype building up to this race.  It was my second race of mine at Beijing, the 400 free relay.  Just four years ago in Athens we had came in third behind the Dutch and the gold medal winners, the South Africans.  I was determined to fix that after this race.  We knew this would be a fast race right off the bat.  Six teams swam under the world record during the prelims.  We were ready. Bring it on.  I started the relay out in lane 4, the fast lane.  I had the second-fastest swimmer in the 50 going against me in the leadoff leg.  My goal was to stay with him.  After 25 meters, he was already half a body length ahead of me.  I didn’t win the leg, but I got us in second place, behind the Australians.  Right after I touched, I jumped out of the water and started cheering for my guys!  Garrett, who swam second, got us up to first place.  But less than a second separated the top three teams; Australia, French, and the US.  Cullen took off for the third leg.  He had a really good leg, but it just so happens that he went against France’s Bousquet, who just swam a 46.63 split in the prelims the night before.  That is the fastest split in history.  Jason, our anchor, then took off after the French captain, Bernard.  At the turn, Jason was down almost a full body length, but as the race progressed on that final straightaway, Jason somehow caught up to him and manage to surpass the mighty French swimmer.  I looked up to the board and saw the number one right next to the United States.  2nd gold medal race couldn’t have been any better or closer.