Schoeman swam his 100m in 48.17 seconds, a full second faster than any of his seven competitors. He had a body-length lead in a race usually decided by millimeters. Meanwhile, the leadoff swimmer for the US, Ian Crocker, posted a terrible time, 50.05 seconds, and touched the wall in last place. Phelps pulled the team from eighth to sixth with his swim, and Walker swam furiously to get the Americans to third.
Jason Lezak dove in for the final leg with a medal in sight. He moved the US into second place by the turn but was caught down the stretch by the Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband. The Dutch team celebrated its silver medal with only slightly less aplomb than the South Africans treated their gold. Van den Hoogenband leapt out of the pool to hug his teammates.
What the US coach Eddie Reese was left to explain was why Crocker was on the relay that night. Reese, who also happens to be Crocker's coach at the University of Texas, said that Crocker had been battling a sore throat, but that because Crocker has been the team's second-fastest 100m swimmer, he had earned that spot. Reese said he refused to second-guess his decision.
"Well, if somebody had told me Ian Crocker was going to go that slow, there's no way I would have believed it," Reese said, referring to Crocker's 50.05 split. "He just can't go that slow. Not in my mind, not in his mind."
When the race was over, hardly anyone dressed in US colors could believe the result. Lezak climbed out of the water slowly and put his arm around Crocker, who looked devastated.
Lezak had swum the fastest of the four, at 47.86, but lost hold of the silver medal because Van den Hoogenband tracked him down with an astonishing 46.79. Of course, Van den Hoogenband is the world record holder and defending Olympic champion at that distance.
But the Americans are used to winning this relay. They spent the past four years smarting over the Australians' victory over them in the 2000 Games. They had their eyes again trained on the Australians -- who had an awful race as well, with only the anchor leg, Ian Thorpe, swimming under 49 seconds -- and on Russia, which won the world championships last year. Russia finished fourth, and the South Africans stunned everyone.
"We didn't overlook them at all," Lezak said. "If you put all of our best swims together, we have a world record. It's all about coming together as a group of four and putting it all together."
That is what did not happen, and it stunned the swimming world -- except for the South Africans, who were too busy celebrating to think about much else.
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