A Stunning Comeback

Oh, wow. If Michael Phelps gets his eight golds -- which would be an Olympic record -- he'll have Jason Lezak to thank. In the last leg of tonight's 4x100 relay, Lezak overcame a deficit to the French that you just don't see swimmers overcome. With maybe ten strokes left, it looked impossible that he would make up the distance. With three strokes left, it still looked improbable. Amazing.

There will be plenty of time to trash the Olympics -- because it's still a bloated, network-driven, human-"interest"-stuffed bore most of the time, hosted by China to boot. But that was the most thrilling athletic moment that I've seen in a while. Phelps' face when he looked to the scoreboard to see who had won -- the margin of victory was eight hundredths of a second -- could be the defining image of the games, though his face after winning an eighth race might have something to say about that. Here's hoping.