How Jason Lezak Won The 4x100 Freestyle Relay

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How did Jason Lezak come from behind to have team USA win the 4x100 M Freestyle?  It's all about techinique!  According to Rowdy Gaines on NBC, Jason Lezak swam the last 50 Meters with 14 strokes while Alain Bernard swam his last 50 Meters with 17 strokes.

Seventeen versus fourteen strokes basically means it took Bernard more energy to swim those last few meters than it did for Lezak.  Distance Per Stroke or DPS is described as a swimmer getting maximum distance per stroke.  To get this DPS a swimmer needs a long body line, good hip and shoulder rotation which together will minimizing resistance.  Gaines during his recap of the race described Bernard as being less relaxed and that his muscles tightened up. 

Another key to Lezak's performance was that after he made his turn he shifted over as close as possible to Bernard's lane which allowed him draft off of Bernard.  Drafting behind another swimmer reduces resistance, improves efficiency and in theory allows the drafter to swim 90% slower than the lead swimmer.  This allowed Lezak to pull an amazing finish at the end of the 100 meters.

Swimming like many sports is a thinking game.  You just don't dive in and scramble to the end of the pool.  Lezak was able to pull ahead and out touch Bernard by .08 seconds giving USA some Gold by swimming a very smart race.  One of the advantages of being 32 with lots of swim experience that Lezak has is that he knows how to race.  The only way to know how to swim in a race and win it is to swim lots of races. 

Joel McKenna blogs about swimming at the17thman.

Comments

[Cari]

I was wondering how he was able to catch the pompous Frenchman. Score one for the older generation!