I fell for the other Olympic swimmer dude

Can we talk about Jason Lezak for a minute?

This is almost old news, yes. It's been a week. However, my admiration of Jason Lezak has not ceased since he, first, won the Americans gold in the 400m Free Relay and then led us to victory in the 400m Medley Relay. I would think being an anchor in a swimming relay during the Olympics is enough of a burden. Sure, relays are a team effort. It's up to all four participants to swim their absolute best, keeping their team either ahead of the competition or making up for any lost ground. However, it can't be denied that anchoring a relay comes with a bit more pressure. It's up to the anchor to secure the victory. In Lezak's case, this was especially daunting in the 400m Free yet the dude pulled it off in an amazing and exciting fashion. All of Lezak's time in the pool was impressive and inspiring, including his bronze medal win in the 100m Free.

What the guy deserves even more glory for is the fact that two of the eight medals Michael Phelps earned this Olympics are very much thanks to this guy. I'm not discounting the talent of Phelps in any way at all. I think he's an extremely talented swimmer, he's a hardworking and humble athlete and he ain't bad on the eyes either. Part of me loved the Phelps-mania that swept the country last week and I barely even tired of all of the montages, human interest pieces and replays that were shown throughout the Olympic coverage. I'm not even saying Phelps would have deserved those medals more if he himself had anchored the race. It just made me love Jason Lezak even more, for being the one to make happen in the end and then standing quietly in the back while the focus was on Phelps. I think we saw more of Phelp's celebrating Lezak's amazing win in the 400m Free Relay than we saw of the win itself. We talked more of Phelps being closer to his eight golds than Jason's swimming assuring him those medals.

I give credit to the NBC reporters for making sure each of the other four men swimming on the relays teams got some camera time. Great swimming by Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones made those golds happen along with Phelps and Lezak. I'm glad they got their glory, heck, they may have gotten even more glory because of the importance placed on the race due to Phelps' being on the team. It was the definition of teamwork and dedication to a craft.

Jason Lezak, however, still stands out to me as the hero of it all. I wish he could get an extra medal just for being awesome. Since he can't, I figured I may as well give him a little extra Olympic fan love.