With the team's biggest cheerleader, Michael Phelps, yelling words of encouragement from just behind the starting blocks, Lezak inched his way back into the race. Each stroke moved him closer to Bernard. Each stroke cut Bernard's lead by inches.
Just about a second before hitting the wall, underwater cameras showed both Bernard and Lezak take glances at each other, making the end even more dramatic.
And in the end, Lezak touched the wall just eight one-hundredths of a second before Bernard. If the final leg was any shorter than fifty meters, the French would have taken the gold. It was in that final meter, that final second, that the Americans prevailed.
After only two seconds, the results were displayed on the scoreboard, the official signal for the swimmers to begin the celebration. No one could believe it, as I'm sure it took most of us minutes to actually realize what happened.
Just seconds before, we all noticed Bernard's lead, and how it appeared insurmountable. Even though we remained optimistic, many of us probably kept the thoughts of losing in the back of our minds. But as Lezak closed the gap, that optimism became more evident. There became a chance and opportunity to win, to make the greatest comeback ever.
And it happened.
Jason Lezak not only kept Michael Phelps' goal of eight gold medals in one Olympics alive, but he did something greater than that. He produced a moment that few Hollywood writers could even dream of scripting.
On the biggest stage in the world, the United States once again prevailed, and Lezak entered United States Olympic history lore, adding to the mystique and dominance of United States swimming.
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