The French never miss an opportunity to disgrace themselves....


The Americans' relay victory was all the more sweet considering the way France declared itself the favorite prior to the Olympics. The Frenchmen weren't shy about repeating it either. In a news conference prior to the start of the Games, Bernard, who boasts a tattoo of a shark on his abdomen, was asked what he thought about his country's chances against the United States.

"The Americans?" Bernard said. "We will smash them."

Several of Bernard's teammates followed his lead, even going to far as to suggest that the Americans were scared of the French.

"This morning, Bob (Bowman) had said the French was saying some stuff, talking a little bit of trash," Phelps said. "It fired me up more than anything else. I told Garret, and he said 'You know what?' We're going to let our swimming do the talking."

And that exactly what happened Monday at the Water Cube.

The U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team of Phelps, Cullen Jones, Garret Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak came from behind to win the gold medal, upsetting France, and the biggest hero of the day turned out to be Lezak, the American anchor and captain of the entire team.

Lezak trailed France's Alain Bernard -- who started the day as the world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle -- by half a body length when the two swimmers turned from the final wall. But Lezak slowly closed the gap, reeling in Bernard an inch at a time, and he out-touched the Frenchman by eight-hundredths of a second to win gold in a world-record time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds.

"When I flipped at the 50, and saw how far ahead he was, knowing he was the world record holder, for a split second a thought crossed my mind: There is no way," Lezak said. "But I said 'You know what? This is ridiculous. This is the Olympics and I'm here for the United States of America. I don't care how bad it hurts.' Honestly, in like five seconds, I was thinking all these things. I just got like a super charge and just took it from there. It was unreal."

Lezak's closing leg (46.06) was the fastest relay split ever, and it kicked off a celebration by Phelps and the rest of the Americans that can best be described as four men going absolutely bonkers with joy.

Phelps, who won his second gold medal of these Olympics and is closing in on the record for most golds in history, threw his arms in the air, opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he possibly could. Weber-Gale bear-hugged Phelps from behind and Phelps shook his fists like a warrior king, bellowing in triumph. Jones leaped into the air, and worried he might fall into the pool. The crowd inside the 11,000-seat Water Cube roared with appreciation.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Phelps screamed. "That's what I'm talking about!"