History for Phelps

Eighth gold medal eclipses Spitz's record

By | Sunday, August 17, 2008

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BEIJING

Walking onto the deck before he would swim the anchor leg in Sunday morning's 4x100 medley relay, Jason Lezak spotted basketball stars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

”I love basketball,” he said. “There was just no way I was going to let those guys down.”

And Lezak certainly didn't want to let down Michael Phelps.

Lezak and teammates Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen came through with history on the line, combining with Phelps to set yet another world record and give Phelps his eighth gold medal, a record for a single Olympiad.

“I literally wanted to do something that no one's ever done before in this sport,” Phelps said. “Without the help of my teammates, it wouldn't have been possible.”

Peirsol gave the Americans an early lead, but after Hansen's leg, Phelps hit the water in third place. At the turn of his 100-meter butterfly, he remained in third. But as he did in Saturday morning's come-from-behind win, he erased the advantage.

Lezak swam last and he touched .70 seconds ahead of the Australians in a record time of 3:29.34.

“I was thinking, 'Don't blow the lead,'” Lezak said. “I was really nervous going in because anything can happen in a one race. I knew Eamon [Sullivan of Australia] was definitely capable of catching me. I wanted to take it out hard and finish as strong as I could.”

For Phelps, it was the last of eight-day, 17-race program in which he swam 3,300 meters.

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