Should have caught this yesterday, but I was a little bogged down with the Sports Center stuff. Olympic Swimming announcer Dan Hicks was pulled aside by NBC for a conference call the day after the amazing 4x100 Freestyle Relay and I wanted to share some highlights....

"Without a doubt it's the great Olympic moment I've ever experienced or called, head and shoulder above anything, and we have done some pretty good things. It's just one of those rare moments that you get in this business to be a part of something like that, and the fact that it now has a chance to continue, one of the greatest Olympic stories ever in Michael Phelps, just makes it an even bigger moment.

It was something out of a Hollywood script. It had everything. It had the guys that did the trash talking in the French, it had the 32-year-old swimmer in Jason Lezak who has not had successful Olympic swims in the past trying to catch the world record holder in the 100m, and doing it when it looked like he had no chance at all. It was a crazy, crazy moment. I know Rowdy, in his eyes, agrees with me that it was simply the greatest Olympic relay race he has ever seen.

That race is why we get into the business of sports broadcasting. It was just absolute excitement, shock, and the utmost of wattage. It was just so unexpected. It was so clear that Bernard was going to win this race and in those last meters, it was like a switch was flipped and all of a sudden Lezak pulled it out. I think it has been clear throughout the Games that we are certainly not rooting for the Americans. The excitement that we had was just simply about an unbelievable piece of drama in the pool."

I don't know about the whole "not rooting for the Amercians" thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed the "utmost of wattage" line. While Rowdy Gaines is busy turning into Swimming's version of Doug Collins ("When I played/swam, I was ____."), Hicks is really making a name for himself. I personally didn't think he was impressive during Tiger's U.S. Open overtime win, but I'm definitely enjoying him during these Olympics.

It's tough to make a name for yourself in a Sports that people only care about every four years, but if he can pull it off.....more power to him. Hey, and just because I like to challenge the man....let's watch it again!



(P.S.- Listening to Doug Collins call Olympic Basketball games is a personal hell for me. If I have to hear the, "I made two free throws, and if they hadn't put more time back on the clock," story one more time I'm going to lose it. We get it...the U.S. was screwed and you were awesome, but we've been hearing it for the last 36 years.)