A fitting end to a historic Olympic run by Phelps. His final medal race didn’t end with drama, but with all the memories hes given us throughout the games….. he’s earned a easy race.

The first video below is the race, and the second video is an interview with Bob Costas afterwards.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I’m completely jaded when it comes to a swimmer breaking any kind of record.

I’ve watched the Beijing Olympics religiously since it started (despite NBC disrespecting west coast visitors), and it seems like every time someone jumps in the pool they’re setting some type of record. Was it like this in my parents generation too? Are today’s athletes THAT much better than they used to be? The straw that broke the camels back was the Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday night, they absolutely demolished the previous record by FOUR seconds.

This article on Sports Illustrated provided an interesting tidbit about swimming events:

There are 32 events on the Olympic program, and in 26 of them, world records have been broken since the conclusion of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Kinda saps the luster out of the moment doesn’t it?

This is probably the most exciting swimming competition you will ever see.

The French were talking trash talking earlier in the day, saying they “couldn’t wait to smash the Americans” in the freestyle relay. Their prediction looked like it was going to come true, because as the race winded down, they had a full body lead on the U.S. and the finish line was in sight.

Out of nowhere… U.S. swimmer Jason Lezak puts on the afterburners and chases down Alain Bernard of France to capture the gold medal for America… you have to see this video. This is the very definition of ETHER. The video doesnt show the look on the faces of the Frenchies after they realize they’ve lost… but it was PRICELESS!!!!