So the USA lost the Men's 4x100 Freestyle relay for the second games in succession after dominating the event, never having lost the event in the previous history of the Olympics. In Sydney, we lost to the Aussies led by Ian Thorpe. In Athens, we lost to South Africa.

The controversy comes not because we probably didn't field our best team, but because of the way the team was put together. 1st Michael Phelps was placed on the team in favor of Gary Hall, jr. Phelps has one of the fastest 100s in the US, but he didn't even bother to swim the event at the trials. He was put on the team in a vain effort to give him a chance to win 8 gold medals in a single games, a feat that will have to wait for another four years. Then there was Ian Crocker's dismal start. He went out in 50.05, the worst split of any swimmer in the race, and left his teammates with a margin too big to close. Crocker was suffering from a sore throat before the race and probably should have been scratched.

The result, a third place finish after Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands zipped past Jason Lezak on the final leg, is the USA's worst finish ever in the event.

What seems to lost in the shuffle is that RSA set a world record in winning the gold so it's likely that even had our best swimmers been out, we would have lost anyway. Huge congratulations to Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling of South Africa.