There's little question that the USA men's 4x100 freestyle relay win will go down as the best moment in these Olympic Games (at least, provided you're not from France or China). And even today, more than a couple of days after the fact, that relay is still the buzz of the Games.

But one of the interesting things to do is actually dissect how a win that remarkable actually occured. Fortunately, we have a video, and some background data, to help explain it.



As you'll see in the video from the New York Times above, Michael Phelps was actually beaten in the initial 100m of the race, something few people probably realize. Also remarkable was that until Lezak plunged into the water, France's third racer, Frederick Bosquet, swam the fastest split ever recorded. Perhaps they should have had him as the anchor.

But how did Lezak triumph over Alain Bernard on the final leg of the race? Much has been made about how Lezak drafted behind Bernard - much like a NASCAR racer - by swimming as close to the lane line as possble. That's true, but he how much did it actually help Lezak? An incredible amount, actually.

According to Rowdy Gaines on NBC, Jason Lezak swam the last 50 Meters with 14 strokes while Alain Bernard swam his last 50 Meters with 17 strokes. Seventeen versus fourteen basically means that it took Bernard slightly more energy to swim those last few meters than it did for Lezak. Part of that discrepency is due to great form by Lezak, but it's primarily thanks to Lezak's drafting of Bernard.

As was also explained in above video, Lezak had what every swimmer dreams of - a perfect finish where your final stroke leads directly into the wall. If you've ever watched lots of competitive swimming, then you know difficult it is to finish like Lezak did. Even Olympic level swimmers can't consistently finish as perfectly as Lezak did, which can cost them precious hundredths of a second.

So then, how aware was Lezak of all of this? After all, it's got to be tough to think while you're going all out in the water.

Well, Lezak's drafting was no accident at all. While his final stroke finish was partly lucky, the fact is that Lezak swam probably the smartest relay leg in swimming history during the 4x100 relay. Truly remarkable given the circumstances.

And it was those smarts, combined with a fortuitous perfect final stroke at the end, that made all the difference in the world.