August 16, 2008: Phelps at the wall

BEIJING - Freeze it. There's less than a body length left in the race, and Michael Phelps is losing. His impossible dream, his incredible attempt at a record eight gold medals in a single Olympics is hanging in the balance. He's won six of them already, and now, in his seventh event, he's trailing with less than a body length to go.

He trailed the whole race, too. He got off to a bad start, which is deadly for a 100-meter race. He spent most of the race trying to come from behind, but he was simply running out of room.

So what could he do? They were so close to the end that Milorad Čavić is already reaching for the wall, and he's leading. Everything Phelps has trained for, the physical and mental drain he went through training for eight events in one Olympics, and it was all coming down to this. They were both reaching for the wall, and Čavić was winning. So what could he do?

In real time, the decision came faster than the blink of an eye, coming so quickly that it couldn't have been anything more than pure instinct. Or pure luck. Whatever the reason, Michael Phelps didn't reach for the wall at the same time that Čavić did. Instead, he threw his arms up over his head for an extra half-stroke. It seemed foolish, downright idiotic, to try another stroke so close to the end. It seemed like a mistake when the results popped up showing Phelps had somehow won the race despite never leading it.

But then we saw the underwater camera, replaying the finish in slow motion. It showed Čavić reaching, stretching, but not appearing to move, and it showed Phelps swinging his arms one last time, inching ever more forward, and never reaching. Instead of reaching, he let his stroke finish with his fingertips touching the pad. It was remarkable to see in slow motion, stunning to see someone seemingly defy the laws of physics.

But he had done it, winning by the slimmest margin possible. And across America, people breathed again. Competition at its absolute best.


Michael Phelps Gold Medal #7 Mens 100m Butterfly Final Beijing

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August 11, 2008: Phelps, assisted by Lezak

BEIJING - With 50 meters to go, all looked lost.

Jason Lezak was doing everything he could, but as he touched the wall on the final turn of the 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing, he was nearly a body length behind France's Alain Bernard, a near-impossible distance to make up. It looked like Michael Phelps' dream was over.

Then Lezak found another gear.

It was surprising that the U.S. was in this position at all. The 4x100 relay would be Phelps' second of what he hoped to be eight gold medals at Beijing. In the preliminaries, the U.S. had set the world record in the event and they were favored to win the gold. With Phelps leading off the relay, they were supposed to take the lead and cruise to the finish.

Except Phelps got beat.

Going head-to-head, both starting at the gun, Australia's Eamon Sullivan shockingly beat Michael Phelps to the wall in the first leg of the 4x100. The last thing anybody expected was Phelps to be the weak link of the relay, but that was what had happened.

Garrett Weber-Gale put the U.S. back in the lead, but France's Frédérick Bousquet stormed ahead to give France the lead entering the final leg. Bernard extended that lead, putting Lezak in a near hopeless position as they hit the wall.

But then he reached down, found another gear somewhere within him, and kept cutting the gap. Slowly. Almost too slowly. With just a few meters to go, it looked like Lezak would run out of space. And then he kicked a few more times. And he reached...