Tag: Rowdy Gaines

NBC’s Rowdy Gaines on the ‘Greatest Race’ doc and why this 2008 Olympic swimming relay was an all-time great comeback

For The Win spoke with NBC Sports’ Rowdy Gaines about Olympic swimming, from 2008 to this summer’s Tokyo Games.

It’s one of the best Olympics moments ever, the most incredible Olympic swimming relay leg in history and, according to NBC Sports swimming broadcaster Rowdy Gaines, the top Olympic race of all time.

It was the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — an event still regularly referenced in swimming circles and by fans at large, partly because it helped Michael Phelps make history with an unprecedented eight gold medals in a single Games.

Team USA wasn’t favored to win — France was — and wasn’t even close to the lead with just 50 meters left in the final relay leg. After Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones swam, the challenge of mounting what seemed like an impossible comeback fell to anchor Jason Lezak.

But in a truly astonishing moment, the then-32-year-old veteran dove in and swam the fastest relay split ever at 46.06, handing Team USA gold over France by .08 seconds. It was a thrilling and literally unbelievable moment during the Beijing Games (and For The Win has written extensively about it).

“If he went 46.10, they lost,” Gaines said. “And so [he] had to go 46-flat, and that’s what I can’t describe. I can’t describe 46-flat to you because I just don’t know how that’s possible.”

Thirteen years later, Gaines said he gets asked about the relay and his broadcast of it all the time, including for Peacock’s new documentary, The Greatest Race, which premiered Thursday.

For The Win spoke with Gaines — a U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member and three-time Olympic gold medalist — about the documentary, what made that relay so special and his prediction for Team USA’s breakout swimming star in the Tokyo Games.

[lawrence-related id=839369]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdT1iQeuoE

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

We talk about this race as the greatest relay leg or maybe the greatest swimming relay overall. How do you think it compares with other major sports comebacks, especially in the finals on such a big stage?

I look at look at it through rose colored glasses a little bit. But that’s why the documentary is so important because it literally goes behind the scenes and tells you why it was so fascinating. [Lezak] was this journeymen sprinter, who had failed a couple times before, on the last last leg of his career, basically, [and] doing something that no human being was ever even close to doing.

And then the stories of how Cullen Jones made [the finals relay team] by .01 of a second — it delves into the details of why this was, in my opinion, one of the great comeback stories in all of sports. Certainly, it’s the greatest race in Olympic history, in my opinion. And I’ve seen a lot. That’s how beloved this race is — at least in the United States. Not so much in France, but here in the United States, it’s a fascinating tale.

I definitely think the relay is on par with other types of sports comebacks — like the New England Patriots coming back from a 28-3 deficit in the Super Bowl and the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series after being down 3-1 — that are the unlikeliest of unlikely.

Absolutely. Especially if you know the dynamics of the relay. The first five or six relays all were under the world record. It’s a world record that still stands 13 years later. [Lezak] still has the fastest split in history 13 years later. It’s just like, you can’t make this up.

[lawrence-related id=940081]

On the on the broadcast during Lezak’s first 50, you said you didn’t think there was any way that he could come back against France’s Alain Bernard, which at that time, seemed like a certainty. Do you regret saying that, or do you think it’s kind of funny now?

Jason Lezak in second trails France’s Alain Bernard by almost a full body length going into the final 50 meters. (NBC Sports)

I don’t regret it at all. I have rarely regret things I say about predictions because I feel like my track records are pretty good on predictions. But this one, I almost enjoy getting wrong because I was like everybody else watching this race. There wasn’t one person in that building that thought the U.S. is going to win. At the 350-meter mark? No way. If they if they do tell you that they’re lying.

I was like everybody else. “I just don’t think they’re gonna do it.” I think it’s kind of funny now. The guys definitely give me grief. I was just talking to Michael [Phelps] a couple days ago, and I brought up the documentary, and he still gives me grief about it. And they all do. Every day, every time I see them, that’s it. “I just don’t think they can do it.”

And the problem is not only did I say it once, but I said it twice! That’s what they really dig in their heels with me: “Oh, my gosh, you fool! You not only said it once, you said it twice.”

We’ve seen trash-talking in Olympic swimming with the French team saying they were going to “smash” the Americans and in the 2016 Rio Games with Lilly King and Yulia Efimova. Is trash-talking a rarity at this level or common and we just don’t see it?

I think it’s definitely more common than then we see. I hear about it a lot, but a lot of times, they like to keep it on the down low and not have that get out publicly. But yeah, there there are certain certain rivalries and certain certain smack talk. That definitely happens in swimming. A lot of personalities that clash, just like any sport.

Looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympics this summer, if you had to pick a breakout star who’s not currently a household name but will be come August, who would you pick?

Claire Curzon, trust me. Nobody’s heard of her. She’s gonna be really, really good, and it’d be a great story because a year ago, she wouldn’t have made the Olympic team.

The pandemic has been tragic for everybody, and, I’m sure, including her. But she’s going to come out and it’s going to be better for her. To have that extra year, it’s going to help her. And she could be a huge breakout star. She could be sort of a Missy Franklin or a Katie Ledecky of 2012.

Speaking of, Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel have a chance to win possibly five gold medals each, which would be a record for U.S. woman at a single Olympics. Do you think one or both of them could do that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvIctUc7b3A

Definitely. First of all, Katie Ledecky is Katie Ledecky. She’s the greatest female swimmer in history, so there’s no doubt in my mind that she could do this.

And Simone Manuel — all three times at the Olympics in 2016, at the world championships 2017 and in the world championships in 2019, she went in, and nobody predicted her to win. And each time she won the gold medal. Those are the three biggest meets over the last five years, so if you plan to bet against Simone, do it at your own peril because I am not going to bet against her. Never ever again.

[lawrence-related id=938506,838659,907524]

[mm-video type=video id=01f7c9r794zzpamtzxbr playlist_id=01f09p3bf720d8rg02 player_id=01evcfkb10bw5a3nky image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f7c9r794zzpamtzxbr/01f7c9r794zzpamtzxbr-5001d0d348fd6bfdf77e6dcb52399ed6.jpg]

3-time Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines talks 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, gives hope to current athletes

If you were to gather a group of former athletes who might be able to shed some sort of light on the current path-altering squeeze the coronavirus has put on young athletes, then-to use to swimming analogy-you’d want Rowdy Gaines in the center lane …

If you were to gather a group of former athletes who might be able to shed some sort of light on the current path-altering squeeze the coronavirus has put on young athletes, then—to use to swimming analogy—you’d want Rowdy Gaines in the center lane of that pool.

Gaines, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Olympic and International Hall of Famer, understands better than most the moments that seem like an end-all blockade in a young athlete’s career. And not just understands, like in the manner of older generations equating the general ups and downs of life, while fidgeting to convey it in the present landscape.

To the current USA Swimming ambassador and NBC television analyst, he can point to one glaring moment in history that carries a lot of unwanted similarities. 

One of the top swimmers in the late-70s, Gaines had catapulted up the ranks. And the first few months of 1980 were progressing for the then-21-year-old talent—who would earn Swimmer of the Year for the effort, which included world records in both the 100m and 200m freestyle.

But suddenly, Gaines found his path halted in the fateful spring months of 1980 as talks of boycotting the Olympic games seemed more like a reality.

Like so many young athletes focused on achieving their goals and dreams, though, it was not Gaines’ reality.

“We all were in denial, at first,” he told me during a phone interview. Although it’s been 40 years, you can still hear the passion in Gaines’ voice when he talks about swimming, from the earliest days to his current efforts with USA Swimming to get pools re-opened while championing the importance of swimming lessons. 

But the tone shifted from defiant to a reserved contemplation, one that typically accompanies something lost—the one that got away—as he continued about the 1980 boycott: “And then, it was anger, and then an incredible depression and sadness. It was an overwhelming grief,” he paused…

While listening to that progression of feelings, some, if not all of it, evoked the now-expected phrasing “that’s just 2020 being 2020″—even though Gaines’ reflection was four decades old.

It makes sense, though. The athletic world has been an unwanted reality of the “‘unknown” in sports (and yes, life), where people have struggled since March to face hypotheticals that asked for concrete answers, all while being shadowed by a new term: COVID-19.

As the cancelations grew this past spring and summer—including the 2020 Olympics—it left athletes in the same uneasy dilemma of having their goals, hopes and dreams abruptly halted as Gaines experienced in 1980.

“The Olympic hopefuls and the high school and even college kids—they have literally lost this year. I have so much empathy for all of them, and what they’re going through right now,” he told me, while also explaining that the circumstances surrounding each event—a pandemic (the health components) versus a political statement—are not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Still, not getting to play means not getting to play. Simple as that.

“That was my best year swimming, and it just disappeared,” he added. “So I feel their pain.”

Possibly the most significant part of Gaines’ story, however, is that he considers his missed opportunities nothing more than a “chapter” in his overall tale. And, as many people witnessed or have since read or heard about, the accomplishments after 1980 are what makes his journey so incredible.

But it almost didn’t happen—not without a little boost.

He went back for his senior year at Auburn University in 1981, not because of unfinished business or a motivational fire, but for a more straightforward reason: it was his senior year.

And following that, he quit. “Back then, there was no money in swimming,” he explained. So Gaines, at 22, left the pool and decided to face the unknown…

His decision to hang up the goggles would not be a permanent one, though.

“My dad came to me about six months later, and said ‘Are you going to be able to look at yourself in the mirror for the rest of your life and not say what if? Are you going to have regrets?'”

From that moment—and then Gaines’ decision not to give up or in so quickly—he would go on to win 16 total medals (12 gold) for U.S. Swimming, including those three gold at the 1984 Olympics, at age 25. 

At the time, he was the third-oldest athlete ever to win gold at the Olympics.

He would fight and overcome beyond that, too. In 1996, following a battle five years prior with Guillain–Barré syndrome that left him with temporary paralysis, he qualified for the Olympic trials. Again. At 35 years old!

(USA TODAY NETWORK)

Now, all of that might seem like a super-specific and extreme case to try to use as present-day motivation—in truth, 320 Olympic athletes who made it in 1980 didn’t make it in 1976 or 1984.

But while many today are left wondering how to best approach “this” specific part of the 2020 timeline, what Gaines expresses makes a lot of sense. And it was the same thing he said to himself after his father had laid out that “what if” scenario—which commonly most young athletes would simply roll their eyes at.

“You say, ‘OK. I accept this, and now I need to get motivated to move toward the next chapter of what my life is going to be in the athletic world.'”

A father of four, he also understands that an adult introducing this route might cause a few a head-tilting squints from athletes in their late teens or early-20s. “They’re all about ‘right now,'” he chuckled, “and they want to know, right now, ‘how this is going to be solved?'”

While the answers to that question are still elusive at best, the fall has brought with it a more promising outlook. High school sports are occurring. College sports have made an effort to resume. And the Olympics will happen in 2021—something that Gaines, who will be there as part of the broadcast team, is optimistically excited about, saying that the pro leagues such as the NFL, NBA, and MLB are the perfect study for what to do (and not to do).

Of course, that won’t make up for the time lost, nor will it guarantee every athlete’s story becomes the next Rowdy Gaines tale of perseverance.

But Gaines sees common ground with the athletes dealing with the roller-coaster experience that many can’t relate to.

“With this current situation, they’ll learn to look at the longterm of their life, which is something that I learned at 22,” he explained. “And in the long run, they’ll see it’s a small bump in the road, and it’s going to be OK.

“So don’t give up hope because it will never be too late. I am living proof of that.”

Sometimes, it just takes a little boost.