"Best relay of all time” - Michael Phelps revisits his historic relay race performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps recently reminisced about his historic performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sharing glimpses from the men’s 4x100m race, the 38-year-old expressed that it was one of the best relay races of all time.
In 2008, Michael Phelps made headlines for winning eight Olympic gold medals - from every event he participated in. He won his eighth gold medal in the 4x100m relay race as part of Team USA. He was joined by team members backstroker Aaron Peirsol, breaststroker Brendan Hansen, and freestyler Jason Lezak.
In that race, Phelps swam a terrific 50.15 to maintain a leading pace and conclude the race at a world-record time of 3:29.34, shaving 1.34 seconds off USA’s standard at Athens in 2004. The victory allowed his country to maintain its dominance in the 4x100m relay race.
Moreover, with that win, Phelps had created an unbeatable record of winning eight gold medals at an Olympics, leaving behind Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven for the most in a single Olympic Games. It raised the Baltimore Bullet’s career total to 16 medals - 14 golds and 2 bronze.
Recently, Phelps recalled his experience of competing at the 4x100m relay race by sharing a video from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He expressed in its caption,
“It was insane to be part of this relay…maybe the best relay race of all time!”
He also tagged his teammates and added an American flag and four gold medal stickers to his story.
Michael Phelps was upset with his Olympic debut
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Michael Phelps made his debut competing in the 200m butterfly. Although the then 15-year-old did not win any medal at the championship, he came fifth.
When Michael Phelps returned from the Olympics, he did not take any time off to rejuvenate like most athletes do. Instead, he used his defeat as motivation and returned to training the next day.
"For me, I was into it the next day. I was upset. So I used that as a motivation leading into the next year."
Nevertheless, Phelps’s coach Robert Bowman gave him a paper that had WR, the initials of the world record written on it. He indicated that the swimmer must focus on beating the world record. The 23-Olympic gold medalist said in an X (formerly known as Twitter) video,
"He's like 'we are gonna break the world record in six months' and I was like 'alright cool, let's try it'. Turns out six months later I break my first world record," Phelps said.
It turned out that Phelps did make it happen within the next six months. At the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps broke the 200m butterfly world record to become the youngest male (15 years and 9 months) ever to set a world record in swimming.