A Look Back: 2008 Olympics Men's 4x100m Free Relay

On August 11th, 2008, Alain Bernard was less than 25m away from an Olympic Gold Medal for France in the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay.
Jason Lezak of the United States had other plans.
On the 15-year anniversary of the most incredible comeback in the history of swimming, I decided to explore the greater significance of this moment and take A Look Back at the preceding events, the characters involved, and everything in between.
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[@MrPyrignis]

As a french swimmer, this races still gives me chills. The 2012 come back is probably the best sports memory I have though.

[@northsta]

Lezak pulled off the fastest 100m ever swum by human (46.06 is still unbeaten)

[@FrankVader99]

And what about the last 50 m ?

[@Yack01]

@@FrankVader99 Lezak went 21.50 - 24.56 in his 100. His backend 50 wasn't the fastest of all time, that record belongs to David Popovici who's gone 24.05 last 50m.

[@FrankVader99]

@@Yack01 The great Popovici ! Thank you !

[@lordsangone]

One of the best parts of that race was watching Phelps and Gales sad faces turn into hope. France had an insurmountable lead coming down the final 50 but once they saw Lezak starting a comeback, Phelps was screaming "catch that mthrfkr, catch that mthrfkr!" and Gale was totally beside himself. Meanwhile, exhausted Jones kinda disappeared to the side of the pool knowing he had lost the lead. You can see how delighted he was when Lezak overtook the lead and lunged for the win. Ive never seen a team look so dejected but all of a sudden turn into total joy. Such a rollercoaster of emotions and highlights. Lezak pulled off the impossible. His split was godly and still untouched to this day. Thanks for the memories team USA. Keep rockin it steady.

[@williamthorstad8848]

Made me like swimming competitions again after growing up in the Spitz era. Man, that was so frickin' exciting watching it live. 🎉🎉

[@spmarei]

Every time i watch this race i get chills, simply amazing

[@TV-fv1ih]

Lets be clear, 3 of the 4 South African team members lived and trained and competed at the University of Arizona. They benefited from everything the US had to offer. The requirements to make an Olympic team such as residency is not as strict in other countries as it is in the US. The practice also lead rise to other countries being more competitive in basketball as well being able to live and play in the NBA in the US then going home to compete for other nations!. It now permeates virtually every sport!

[@ninerushclips3414]

Very underrated channel. It's probably solely due to swimming not being main stream, otherwise, I guarantee you'd have a lot more viewers.

[@stingyaviation]

www.youtube.com/@theswammers Look at the views this guy pulls on his shorts I think if we get enough good swimming content creators then we can get it to go main stream 😊

[@leo_zero1879]

Grew up a swimmer and I’m so gal I found your channel. I miss the competitiveness of the sport..

[@rbz2181]

Just took the script for any episode of Rewind from Secret Base… Could’ve changed it up some by using a thesaurus. At least make an attempt.

[@TobbyTommy]

Awesome video man!

[@writethisthat3613]

Great edit!

[@Gerhard2770]

Lezak left 0.03sec after Jones touched the wall. Soo close to disqualification

[@joshuadempsey4573]

Where did you find the original video, its impossible to find

[@michaelshepardson8436]

One of my top 3 sporting moments of all time. And I'm not a swimmer!

[@ptricky15]

Also kept Phelps on track for 8 gold medals.

[@user-nd5bb1ze2l]

Bernard has beaten lezak two days later in 100 meters in the presence of Sullivan, Cielo and much more

[@rigelgutierrez9866]

Bernard did everything you teach a 7 year old peewee not to do in the last 10 meters of the race

[@Cartergarrett26]

🤔 this type of edit looks familiar you steal it from sb nation 🤔

[@jacquelinerussell8530]

USA USA USA 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

[@erikbofo2649]

100th like.

[@realalbertan]

To say the US were the hands down favorite in 2000 is willfully ignoring that Australia beat them in 1999 at Pan Pacs held at the Sydney Olympic pool. Australia also first for all 4 to split 48.

[@a2515]

Lezak was 0.08 off the start if you subtract that from his actual leg he did technically swim it in 45.98

[@jaxclipper6328]

The relay start actually makes the time faster, considering most professional sprinters reaction times are about 0.6 but still a very incredible swim and way under the world record.

[@FlipNasty1]

What an abrupt ending ... disappointed