USA! USA!

Now that's why the Olympics are awesome: international smack talk, a massive comeback by the underdog, and good sportsmanship in the end. I am talking, of course, about that 4x100 freestyle relay. The French were most definitely the favored team, but their world-record holding anchor probably shouldn't have said it quite the way he did. He promised that they would "smash" the Americans; that smashing the Americans was in fact exactly why they had come to the Olympics. I wonder if that's what Jason Lezak was thinking about when he closed in on the trash-talker himself, Allain Bernard, in that last length of the pool. I know that's what I was thinking about. And I am pretty sure I have never screamed that loudly for any other Olympic swimming race before.

That's how I like my representatives to settle scores: on the field of play. The US swimmers didn't respond in kind to the French comment. Nor did I hear any of them say anything much in after-race interviews. Nope, they did their talking in the pool. And it was some sweet talking!