By Dan Albano, The Orange County Register –
OMAHA, Neb. — Jason Lezak felt the fatigue with 25 meters left. He needed a boost, so he briefly closed his eyes and thought of an image from his past.
“I saw the ghost of Bernard,” he said, referring to rival Alain Bernard of France from the Beijing Games.
Lezak found the surge he needed and powered to a record-setting finish at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials on Friday night.
Lezak, 36, from Irvine, Calif., pushed back swimming’s Father Time by placing sixth from Lane 8 in an ultra-tight 100-meter freestyle final to qualify for his fourth consecutive U.S. Olympic team.
Two races later, in front of 14,103 at CenturyLink Center, Irvine’s Amanda Beard advanced to the finals of the 200 breaststroke to stay in contention to make a fifth consecutive U.S. team.
Lezak stopped the clock in 48.88 seconds, just four one-hundredths of a second ahead of Scott Robison for the sixth and final relay spot on the 400 free relay.
Cal’s Nathan Adrian captured the two-lap race in 48.10, so the next six finishers were grouped by less than a second.
After Lezak saw his placement, he exhaled a sigh of relief as he looked toward his family. The father of two then rested his head on the finishing wall.
“I was nervous,” he said. “It’s a big race for me. I trained four years for this. It’s been real hard. Nobody really understands how hard it has been for me except my wife (Danielle) and I. It’s a pretty good accomplishment to get in there.”
Lezak broke his 2008 record for being the oldest U.S. male swimmer to qualify for the Olympics. He also joined Michael Phelps as the only four-time Olympians for the U.S. men’s team.
“That’s pretty cool,” Lezak said of tying Phelps. “I didn’t even think about it. I just thought about how old I was.”
Lezak said the physical limitations, in Friday’s final, and in training, were major obstacles.
“I’m actually really surprised that I was able to go faster than last night (in the semifinals),” said Lezak, who dropped almost two-tenths of a second. “(I) felt terrible. This 36-year-old body was run down.”
But Lezak was strong enough to capitalize on a fairytale-type opportunity rendered by Ryan Lochte, who doesn’t give away much to competitors. Lochte scratched from the 100 free final after semifinals, moving Lezak into the final.
Lochte raced in two other events Friday night.
While Lezak might not anchor the U.S. 400 free relay in London to gold as he did against Bernard and France four years, he is excited to share his knowledge.
“I’ve learned a lot and hopefully I can be a team leader and help these guys swim fast,” Lezak said.
Beard, 30, also dropped time Friday. She sliced just over a second off her prelim time to qualify fifth in the 200 breaststroke semifinals with a 2:25.90. Reigning world champion Rebecca Soni (world-leading 2:21.45) and Micah Lawrence (2:24.12) claimed the top-two seeds for Saturday night’s final.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to do in the semifinals,” Beard said. “Now, I have new time in my head for tomorrow night. Cross my fingers, get a lot of rest, hopefully I can do it.”
