I came home a minute before the finals of Men's 100m butterfly event started. Just like the finals of Men's 4x100m freestyle its another shocker. A bigger one. Michael Phelps caught up with Milorad Cavic in the last.. well half-meter. He won over the serbian by a mere 1/100 sec clocking 50.58 seconds, a new olympic record. Phelps now tied Mark Spitz's seven gold medal record in a single olympiad.
Well done Mr. Phelps! Keep winning, breaking records, and thrilling us.
For the past few days, I have been following Michael Phelps' journey of breaking Mark Spitz's record number of gold medals in a single Olympiad. And I must admit that the final of the Men's 4x100m freestyle relay event was the most exciting so far.
I even have the video clip of this race (scroll down below). On clip you could see that Cullen Jones was nowhere to be found after Jason Lezak, the fourth and final swimmer of the US relay team, sealed their sweetest victory.
I was checking my email when a news entitled "The Mystery of the Disappearance of Cullen Jones" by Chris Chase caught my attention. Here is Chris' answer to this mystery:
The Mystery of the Disapperance of Cullen Jones
By Chris Chase
The pictures of Michael Phelps and Garrett Weber-Gale celebrating their improbable win in the 4x100 freestyle relay were splashed across newspapers and websites around the world yesterday. But there was somebody conspicuous in his absence from all the immediate reaction shots.
Where was Cullen Jones? The third swimmer in the United States' world record setting 4x100 team, Jones was nowhere to be seen in the aftermath of Jason Lezak's stunning anchor leg. Every picture and video shot includes only Phelps and Weber-Gale; Jones was AWOL. Eventually, he joined the celebration, but where was he during that thrilling finish? I've heard that question three times over the past 36 hours, so this morning, Fourth-Place Medal's crack investigative unit, which yesterday uncovered the mystery of the hot Paraguayan, got on the case.
After breaking down the last moments of the race like the Zapruder film, it becomes clear that Jones wasn't with his teammates because he had run to the side of the pool to get a better angle to view the touch. Look for Jones at the bottom-left of the picture, leaning over at the finish line. He's immediately to the right of the WR/OR graphic.
During an interview on the Today show, Jones said that he didn't remember walking away from the starting area, only that he was so dizzy after his race he could barely stand up. After looking at the finish, Jones stared at the scoreboard for a few seconds to confirm what he had seen. When he realized he and his relay teammates had just capped one of the most improbable comebacks in Olympic history, he began celebrating... alone.
Mystery: solved.
Check other articles by Chris Chase such as "The Mystery of the Hot Paraguayan" and "The Mystery of the Showering Divers" by clicking these titles.
This is the race that everyone's been talking about.
The finals of the Men's 4x100m freestyle relay in the Beijing Olympiad.
Enough said. Just watch the video. Enjoy!
This is gold number two for Michael Phelps.
Last night I stayed up late just to watch the 4x100m freestyle relay olympic event where Michael Phelps is expecting to win his second gold medal. Garret Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak made up the rest of the US team.
They beat the french quartet by 0.08 seconds. The US team also set a new world record of three minutes and 8.24 seconds, four seconds faster than the previous mark.
The last 50 meters of the race was the most exciting part. Lezak was behind France's Alain Bernard by about half a body length and then suddenly caught up in the last 10 meters or so to win the relay.
The crowd, that thought the french team will win the race and end Phelps' quest for eight gold medals, went wild. You could see Phelp's reaction in the photo at the left.
Last Saturday Michael Phelps won his first gold medal in the 400m individual medley event where he also set a new world record of four minutes and 3.84 seconds shattering his old mark by 1.41 seconds.
So it's two down, six more to go.
Here's a list of Phelp's remaining six events.
200m freestyle (Monday)
200m butterfly (Tuesday)
4x200m freestyle relay (Tuesday)
200m individual medley (Thurday)
100m butterfly (Friday)
4x100m medley relay (Saturday)
Watch these games live in NBC.
