Phelps Wins Gold

The event happened all very quickly.  On TV there is lots of build up and hype up to the race.  In the stadium, the competition is deliberate and fast.

Phelps race was the second of the evening.  The women's 200M backstroke was first and teenager Missy Franklin for team USA won the gold and set a world record.  

Once the competition starts, it moves very fast, they announce each swimmer, they walk to their blocks, and once the last one is there, the race starts in about 45 seconds.

After the race is over - 2 minutes to clear the pool and they start the next race.

They announced Phelps in Lane 4 - lots of applause - and about 2 minutes later the race started - up and back the length of the pool.  Too short to recover from slow start or mistake.

On the scoreboard in the stadium, they show the split times for all swimmers and their rank and at the halfway point Phelps was 7th out of 8 - not looking good and at this point I just didn't want him to embarrass himself.  Well he didn't - somehow he pulled out the final length of pool and past the field to finish first.  Very, very exciting.