Jewish Olympians Swim Like Fish
By Lana Gersten
Thu. Aug 14, 2008
AT THE GAMES: American fencer Sada Jacobson, top, won a silver medal; Jason
Lezak, above, broke the world record in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.
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At
46.06 seconds, the fastest split of all time, Jewish athlete Jason Lezak swam
the race of his life to achieve a gold medal for the American 4x100-meter
freestyle relay team. In the process, he broke the world record and kept
Michael Phelps’s bid for eight gold medals alive.
At
32, making him the oldest male on the American swim team, Lezak had to play
catch-up in his anchor leg, hitting the pool a whole half-second behind Alain
Bernard of the favored French team. But Lezak pulled one of the most impressive
comebacks in Olympic history.
“I
knew I was going to have to swim out of my mind,” he told the International
Herald Tribune. “I just happened to have the swim of my life at the right
time.” Also swimming for the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay was Garrett
Weber-Gale, a 23-year-old American Jew who came out fast after a strong start
by Phelps.
With
all their triumph and glory, those two men are not the only Jewish Olympians
making headlines. American swimmer Dara Torres, who at 41 is the oldest swimmer
in the Beijing Olympic Games, became the oldest swimmer ever to receive a medal
in the Olympics when she won silver in the women’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
American
fencer Sada Jacobson won a silver medal after being defeated by fellow American
Mariel Zagunis, and Israeli windsurfer Shahar Zubari captured first place in
his first race and finished third in his second and fourth races.
Israeli
swimmer Alon Mendel, whose father died just two days before the Olympics
started, set a new Israeli record of 1:59.27 in the preliminary heat of the
200-meter men’s butterfly, good enough for fourth place. Although he didn’t
make the semifinals, he did record his personal-best time.