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The men’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the Sydney Olympics.
It was the opening night of competition at the 2000 Olympics, and all eyes were on the pool. More than fifteen-thousand screaming, cheering, flag-brandishing fans, and a handful of “publicity shy” celebrities and politicians, crammed every nook and cranny of the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, hoping to see our swimmers make Olympic history.
Earlier in the evening, a 17-year-old Ian Thorpe obliged them by winning his first Olympic gold medal, shattering his own world record, in the men’s 400m freestyle. Now, barely an hour later, he was lining up with Michael Klim, Chris Fydler, and Ashley Callus to anchor our 4x100m freestyle relay team. Would he, could he, along with his teammates, make Olympic history again?
Not if the Americans had anything to do with it.
The United States had owned the title deed to the race since its inception as an Olympic event 32 years prior. Nobody had ever beaten the American 400m freestyle relay team at an Olympics Games. And this night, according to the USA’s then 50m freestyle champion, Gary Hall, Jr. would be no different. He bragged that the Americans would smash the Aussies, their main rivals, like guitars.
As Michael Klim took to the blocks, a palpable feeling of nervous excitement spread through the largely Aussie crowd. If ever there was an opportunity for Australia to re-establish itself as a world swimming superpower, after decades of mostly disappointing performances in the pool, this was it.
Dead silence.
Over the PA system came: “Take your marks.” Then with a resounding BEEP the race was on.
Klim, swimming in lane five, powered to an early lead. An overhead camera revealed that he was half a body length in front of his nearest competitor, the American 50m freestyle hotshot, Anthony Ervin, just midway through the first lap. He was setting an incredible pace, but would he be able to maintain it?
Coming off the wall, into the second lap, with a world record split, he was still in front but was tiring. For Australia to have any chance of being the first nation to beat the USA, he’d have to hold onto the lead. Spinning his arms like a pair of windmills on nitrous oxide, he kept the gap between himself and Ervin a respectable one and touched the wall first.
With a shocked gasp, Dennis Cometti’s co-commentator, Andrew Baildon, informed the television audience that Klim had just broken the men’s 100m freestyle world record.
The crowd was going nuts.
Chris Fydler hit the water next. Fydler was a capable competitor but an unknown quantity to most casual swimming fans. With no world records and no major titles to his name, he had just two laps to prove that he wasn’t our weakest link. As he approached the wall for the turn, the head-start that Klim had handed him was all but gone. A couple of strokes into the second lap, the American, Neil Walker, had caught up to him.
For the next 25 metres the two of them battled for the lead. Then Fydler, drawing on the energy of the screaming crowd and what little reserves he had left, stormed ahead of Ervin. As his fingers met the wall, he’d managed to reclaim the half a body length advantage he’d relinquished.
Now it was Ashley Callus’ turn to try to nudge us closer to victory. This was a crucial part of the relay for us. If Callus could get Thorpe into the water ahead of the USA, the Olympic champion would have a better than good chance of helping us capture the one gold medal that had eluded every swimming nation except America.
Callus dove into the pool, only to find veteran USA relay swimmer Jason Lezak right alongside him when he surfaced. Lezak overtook Callus and turned into the second lap a stroke in front of him.
The venue shook from the overwhelming clamour of the Aussie spectators as they cheered Callus on. Callus dug deep and, with just fifteen metres to swim, snuck past Lezak, beating him to the wall. Thorpe, who wasn’t a 100 metre specialist, now had the split-second advantage he needed.
This was it!
A huge roar of excitement erupted from the crowd as Thorpe sprang into the water and started ploughing his way to a possible history-making finish. But no sooner had he settled into his stroke than sprint ace, Hall, shot past him.
Although Thorpe usually came home faster than he went out, he couldn’t afford to give Hall too big a lead. Hall hadn’t already competed that night, so he was the fresher man, plus he was a much more experienced short distance swimmer than Thorpe. Parlaying even a modest lead into a gold medal wouldn’t be difficult for him.
Thorpe tumbled into the final lap, behind Hall, who was going like an express train toward the wall. With scarcely twenty seconds left to decide the race, the USA looked poised to seize the gold yet again. Suddenly Thorpe switched the afterburners on and, in a flurry of foam, surged forward to be dead-level with the brash American.
Fifteen metres to go!
The noise from the crowd rose from thunderous to earshattering.
Thorpe began to edge away from Hall.
A hoarse Dennis Cometti bellowed, “Thorpe is overhauling him!”
Three metres from the finish, and Hall made a last ditch attempt to overtake Thorpe. They both lunged for the wall, but Thorpe’s slight lead brought it closer to his fingertips and…
BOOM! The gold medal was ours! And in world record time!
People in the stands leapt to their feet, danced, threw their arms around each other, and made so much noise that the Aquatic Centre roof threatened to abandon Earth for the ionosphere.
Thorpe jumped out of the water to celebrate with his teammates. The quartet engaged in a spot of mock guitar-smashing, sticking it to the Americans.
The Americans were shell-shocked. Gary Hall, Jr. looked as if he’d just found out that his mother had been arrested for a series of liquor store hold-ups.
They weren’t the only ones reeling from the stunning upset. When the telecast crossed back to the Channel 7 Olympic studio, the normally garrulous Bruce McAvaney spent several embarrassing seconds floundering for words. Finally, he emerged from bewilderment to tell the viewers that, since 1968, every men’s 400m freestyle relay gold medal had been won by the USA — until then.
It had taken us two world records to beat the Americans. But beat them we did in what was the most thrilling men’s relay ever swum at an Olympic Games.
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