Phelps Olympic Relay Video

Video of the US Swim Team's freestyle relay victory last night, led by Michael Phelps

Phelps Olympic Relay Video link

Michael Phelps won his second gold medal of the 2008 Games on Monday, with a victory by the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay. The U.S. finished first in 3 minutes 8.24 seconds, smashing the world record by nearly 4 seconds, with France taking silver and Australia getting bronze.

Jason Lezak provided an incredible performance in the anchor leg, coming from behind to out-touch France’s Alain Bernard.

The U.S. relay team had felt strong entering the race, after a world-record performance by the B team in the heats on Sunday night. The Americans Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers finished the freestyle relay in 3:12.23 seconds, 0.23 seconds faster than the world record set two years ago at the Pan-Pacific Championships by the United States A team.

At the United States trials in July, Jason Lezak, Garrett Weber-Gale and Phelps posted sub-48 second swims, a feat matched this year by only two other swimmers, Bernard and Australia’s Eamon Sullivan.

Lezak, Weber-Gale and Phelps sat out the preliminaries to conserve energy. In what proved to be a competition within the competition, the four Americans who did swim were essentially racing one another for the privilege to team with Lezak, Weber-Gale and Phelps.

Cullen Jones, a Bronx native who grew up in New Jersey, won the honors by clocking the fastest split, a 47.61 on the second leg. Adrian led off with a 48.82, Wildman-Tobriner had a 48.03 and Grevers anchored the team in 47.77. It was otherwise a fruitful day for Grevers, who also broke the Olympic record in the heats of the 100-meter backstroke.

Phelps Olympic Relay Video