The best of the best Olympic sport
Welcome to part 8 of 30 of my Ramblin’ to Paris series. Check out last week’s piece where I spelled out the ideal version of what my trip would be, but won’t be. Today’s piece is sponsored by Tech alumni and Travelmation travel agent, Nicolas Santine.
This is going to be an article about swimming. Originally it was titled “Three Favorite Olympic Moments,” but it would take about 10-15 swimming races before I got to a favorite event that wasn’t swimming, so I axed the rest of the Olympic programme. It’s not the only thing sport the Olympics are about, but it largely is the one event that gets the most attention throughout the games. For me, there is no Olympic event that gets me in my feels more than that weeklong swim meet. I don’t think I missed a single race, prelim or final, during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
As I mentioned in a previous Ramblin’ to Paris piece, I was growing up right at the perfect time for Michael Phelps to make a massive impression on me. During his run in Beijing, I was nine years old and on the verge of a growth spurt that kickstarted my youth athletic peak across baseball and swimming. Additionally, as was tradition in my household to watch at least four hours of Olympics coverage every evening, we caught 90% of the finals races from 2004 onwards.
That combination of nature and nurture put Olympic swimming in my top three sporting events I must watch live if I had to choose. There is simply not a world where I’m missing it. You might get me to rethink that if somehow it fell during Georgia Tech’s one national championship appearance, but thankfully the sports calendar is not setup for that to ever happen (pending a decades-long summer starting in the 2050s due to global warming).
If there was a Georgia Tech swimmer who had medaled in an Olympics, they would be on this list…probably. I’m not sure how I’d feel if a non-American Tech grad beat an American in an Olympic final, but that would be a great problem to have.
When thinking through the races that stand out to me, there were two obvious ones and a few that had legit reasons to make the third spot. The only criteria I had was that it had to be a race I actually saw live on TV, which means all races from 2008 onward except this one, which I regret to this day I didn’t watch. The 2008 4 x 100 meter Freestyle Relay:
If there was a single moment in sports I could change history and be there in person for, it’s this race. Michael Phelps goes first in the relay and doesn’t put the Americans ahead. France were heavy favorites and were cocky about it. Jason Lezak was the anchor leg and had no business catching the French, but sure enough swims possibly the best single 50 meter freestyle in American history to catch the French. Add in that Rowdy Gaines and Dan Hicks have the call of their broadcasting lives, this race is perfect.
Now, for the three I actually watched in no particular order:
Beijing 2008, Men’s 100 Butterfly
Phelps so far was six-for-six in gold medals with two more to go. He had the 100 Butterfly and the 4 x 200 Freestyle Relay still to go. The U.S. was assured to win the relay, so by this point it was the 100 Butterfly or bust to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.
Phelps winning this race in the most dramatic style possible was the best television I had ever seen up to that point. At this point, it was the most anticipated race in swimming history with what was at stake. Every NBC broadcast has included this race in one way or another the night of the 100 Butterfly every Olympics since, and how could they not? It’s possibly the best race ever.
On a personal level, this race altered my trajectory as a swimmer. I was primarily swimming freestyle and backstroke in my first few years of swimming, but this race made it quite clear to me that I should become a butterflyer, and within a year I was easily one of the best in DeKalb County. I watched this in a crowd of dads over at my parents house in Avondale Estates, halting their night of cornhole to watch this race. The energy in that room was astounding.
The postscript to this race came in 2016 when Phelps finished in a three-way tie for 2nd behind Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, tying his longtime rivals Chad Le Clos (South Africa) and Laszlo Cseh (Hungary). Somehow, in the race he won by 0.01 seconds in 2008, he managed to tie two other swimmers eight years later.
Rio 2016, Women’s 200 Backstroke
I’ll bet none of you who know their Olympic swimming saw this race coming, but it’s here because of the shock factor it gave me the night of this race.
The 2016 Rio games were the only one Stanford swimmer Maya Dirado participated in, but she threw down one of the best upset gold medals the Americans have seen in the 200 Backstroke.
The favorite going into the race was Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who has been near Novak Djokovic levels of dominant on the international stage in swimming, but for whatever reason has not been able to put it completely together in the Olympics outside of Rio.
While she won three golds outside of this race, this was not one she should’ve lost. Maya was certainly elite, but beating Katinka was one of the hardest things to pull off in swimming in 2016. Her four individual medals were the most of any athlete in those games. Hosszu has 64 career gold medals across Olympics, World Championships, and European Championships since 2009.
Dirado had one shot to win this. She wasn’t coming back for Tokyo. Like Phelps in the 100 Butterfly, she was so far behind in this race and if she didn’t have a perfect finish, Hosszu is walking away with four golds from Rio. Watch her finish again, Hosszu gets too flat and doesn’t reach enough at the end while Dirado gets full extension and with a dolphin kick, gets the extra boost that Hosszu doesn’t.
Rio 2016, Men’s 50 Freestyle
The splash and dash. With how chaotic this race is, it’s impressive how consistent some swimmers like Nathan Adrian have remained dominant in it over the years. This race has no room for error. A bad start, you’ve lost. Take two or more breaths, your tempo likely has gone out of sync. Aren’t 6’2’’ or taller, you probably didn’t even qualify for the Olympic final.
This race is here because of Anthony Ervin’s story. He won the gold in this race at the 2000 Sydney games at 19 years old, then retired in 2003 for eight years. He finished 5th in London in 2012, swimming 0.18 seconds slower than his qualifying time at Olympic Trials behind Cullen Jones.
At 35 years old, he had no business being a gold medal favorite in Rio. France’s Flourent Manaudou was the reigning Olympic champ and world champ in both long and short course. Sure enough, Ervin came through becoming the oldest individual Olympic swimming gold medalist, taking Michael Phelps’ record of 31 years old set earlier in the Rio games.
When watching this race, I was stunned not only that Ervin had won, but that he beat the only guy I thought even had a chance at upsetting Manaudou, Nathan Adrian. He did what Dara Torres didn’t, winning individual gold at a far advanced age for swimmers, despite Dara having numerous opportunities at five Olympics (and nearly a 6th in 2012!).
Not too long after the race, I learned Ervin had couchsurfed during his retirement years at one point with a family friend, and got to virtually share my enthusiasm for his gold medal win with him.
NEXT WEEK ON RAMBLIN’ TO PARIS: Olympic medal count by NCAA conference
Jack Purdy is a non-revenue sports writer and co-host of Scions of the Southland for From the Rumble Seat. He previously served as The Technique’s assistant sports editor before graduating Georgia Tech in 2022. Follow Jack on Twitter @JackNicolaus
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