Imagemap

Nathan Adrian Shares Silver in 400-Meter Freestyle Relay

Nathan Adrian and the US men’s team came in second place to the French in the 400-meter freestyle relay despite having built up a half-second lead through the first three legs.

Adrian had wanted to swim the anchor leg. Instead he was assigned the opening leg, and finished it with a significant lead over both the French and Australian swimmers. Had he gotten his wish to swim anchor, the US team may well have won gold. Instead, that was assigned to the new US star Ryan Lochte who had already put in a gold-medal performance in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday and two 200-meter freestyle preliminary races earlier Sunday.

Perhaps to show that he wasn’t fatigued or perhaps from the depth of his conviction in his overwhelming superiority over French anchor man Yannick Agnel, Lochte may have added to the fatigue factor by getting off to a too-fast start in the first 50 meters. His split time in the second 50 was 47.74 seconds while Agnel’s was a blistering 46.74 — good enough to finish nearly a half second ahead of Lochte for a winning time of 3:9.93 to the US 3:10.38.

Russia won bronze with 3:11.41 while Australia, which had been favored to win the event, came in fourth at 3:11.63.

Nathan Adrian had won his gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics for having swam in a preliminary of the 400-meter freestyle. He will get a shot at an individual medal in the 100-meter freestyle race Tuesday in which the Australian star James Magnussen is favored to win gold. Magnussen’s best time in the event is 47.10, a second faster than the 48.10 Adrian had turned in to qualify for the event.

Phelps turned in the fastest leg among the US relay team with a time of 47.15, thanks in part to his effort at conserving energy by dropping the 200-meter freestyle which had the preliminary rounds before the 400-meter freestyle relay finals. His latest silver is his 17th Olympic medal, putting him one medal shy of the record for most Olympic medals currently held by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina. Phelps has 14 golds, 2 bronzes and a silver. He has five more events in which he can potentially win medals.

Nathan Adrian was born on December 7, 1988 in Bremerton, Washington, the third of three children of a Chinese mother born in Hong Kong and a caucasian father who worked as a nuclear engineer. Adrian’s older sister swam at Arizona State and older brother Justin swam at the University of Washington. Their influence induced Adrian to take up swimming at the age of five. He swam for Bremerton High School before enrolling at UC Berkeley in the fall of 2006. He became one of Cal’s most successful swimmers, winning individual NCAA championships in the 50-yard freestyle in 2009 and 2011 and the 100-yard freestyle in 2009, 2010, and 2011. He also led Cal to the NCAA Swimming National Championship in 2011.

Adrian has cultivated a large Twitter following with frequent amusing updates about his personal and competitive life. His fans know a great deal about his enthusiasm for yoga and for cooking. Among family and friends his nickname is Bok Choy, a type of Chinese cabbage.

Adrian’s underground popularity on the blogosphere exploded after the 2012 Indianapolis Grand Prix when his suit ripped down the back seam just as he was diving off the block. He won the race anyway — and thousands of new fans who admired not only what the tear revealed about his physique but also about his focus and determination. Those assets are expected to serve him well in London when pressure can produce surprises and upsets.

---