coming up for you later, but right now, swimming.
The men's four-by-200-meter freestyle relay.
Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines are at the Olympic pool.
Final preliminary heat of the day.
At day two, it's swimming at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines getting
set for the men's four-by-200-meter freestyle
relay.
And pride and tradition at stake for the United States men.
They finish third in this event at the 92 Olympic Games.
It was the first relay that the United States men
had failed to win since 1956.
You see the lineup there.
Berube, Hudapol, Schumacher, and Olson.
It's not only the 800 free relay, Dan.
It's also the medley, 400 medley and 400 free relay.
So the United States has had a long tradition
of great relays.
United States in the middle of the pool in lane four.
The top times turned in so far from Great Britain, Germany,
Italy, and Australia as Ryan Berube takes out
the United States first in lane four.
Once again, each swimmer swimming
four lengths of the pool.
Well, Berube had a great NCAA career at SMU.
It was a very solid, collegiate swimmer.
Just missed making the individual event.
In the 200 by eight one hundredths of a second.
He finished third at the Olympic trials.
And he finished fourth in the 200 backstroke.
So he's a solid backstroker also.
You can see him right there.
He's got to follow a little bit behind the leaders
at this point.
I don't think there's any question early on for anybody
to panic that's watching this from the United States.
I think the USA is going to make the finals without a doubt.
There's probably seven or eight teams
in the world that are very good in this event.
And then it falls off tremendously after that.
And the United States is one of those eight teams.
You mentioned the leaders.
They are in lane six out of the Netherlands.
And swimming the first leg is Peter van den Hogenbaan
of the Netherlands.
He made the finals in the 200 free
but finished out of the medals.
But he has the lead for the Netherlands.
They are swimming in lane six as he makes his final turn.
United States is second.
And Sweden's swimming in lane five as third.
There's Berube right there.
Eddie Reese, his rival coach at Texas,
called him one of the great racers of all time.
So you know he's going to be able to get home this last 50
and give the United States a little bit of an edge.
But Hogenbaan, van den Hogenbaan,
is going to give the Netherlands a little of the lead.
Next up to take over for Berube, Joe Hodepoel,
swimming the second leg for the United States.
And he'll follow in the pool, Tim Wiesman of the Netherlands.
The world record is 711.95, turned in by the great Unified
Olympic team back in Barcelona, which
featured a pretty good anchorman on that team as well.
So Dov Juanda, 200 individual event in Barcelona,
just missed breaking the world record.
I don't think that's going to be touched this morning.
Might be flirted with a little bit tonight.
But definitely not this morning.
Joe Hodepoel is closing the gap a bit
on Tim Wiesman of the Netherlands.
Netherlands still running one and the United States
second in lane four.
Following up Hodepoel, getting ready to go,
and will be Brad Schumacher.
Hodepoel's moving up very nicely right here.
Swimming very smart.
Always has had a great cat.
Now he hasn't really put his legs into it too much yet.
Once he puts his legs into it, he
knows how to get home pretty well.
This is a guy that had a storied career
as a high school student.
He broke three national high school records.
A lot of expectations were made on this man
and put on his shoulders.
He hasn't really lived up to him,
and I think that's unfair because he's had a great career.
Anchored a world record relay last summer here in this pool
in the four by 100 relay.
Has a chance to swim that also if he puts a good leg in here.
Hodepoel has gotten the United States back the lead in lane
four.
And in second place, Sweden has moved up
as Lars Frullander has given the Swedes the second position.
But getting ready is Brad Schumacher
for the United States in the third of four legs
in the men's 800 meter freestyle relay.
Tradition on the line, the United States
has never failed to meddle in a relay event.
Oh, he came off good.
Oh, nice finish for Joe Hodepoel.
And that's what you need to do because these relay
exchanges are so crucial.
Not as much in the 800 for relay as the 400 relays,
but still very important.
49.13, 149.13 on Joe Hodepoel.
Nice, solid time for a morning swim.
Roddy, let's talk about the possible United States
lineup tonight and what this swim in the pool means,
as well as the swims made by John Piersma and Josh Davis,
who have already competed in the 200 meter freestyle
individual event.
Well, it's a little confusing because you
have six swimmers that make the 200 freestyle as far
as a relay contingent to come to Atlanta.
You already see Brad Schumacher really
starting to move out on him.
Now, only four obviously can swim that relay.
It looks to be that Josh Davis and John Piersma
might be on the relay.
Now, their swims were yesterday.
They had their chance to prove their stuff yesterday.
These four guys have the chance this morning.
If they, and let's say if all four of them
beat Piersma and Davis, Piersma and Davis are off.
That's not going to happen because Josh Davis looks
for sure to be on there.
But John Piersma, who did not qualify in the finals
of the 200 freestyle right now, is shaky
because Schumacher is looking great.
He's turning in a great time.
There was some speculation that if they needed him,
Tom Dolan could swim a leg of the relay.
But these guys would have to make a major collapse
to do that and that's not going to happen,
as evidenced from the first two legs.
I don't think there's any way that Tom Dolan now
will be on that relay tonight.
But Brad Schumacher's got a great story.
Here's a guy that was an All-American
in both water polo and swimming and thought about
swimming water polo for the United States in 1996.
Changed his mind because they couldn't guarantee him a spot
and now look at him swimming for the relay
for the United States.
And next up is the man they call the turtle.
He kind of looks like one.
John Olson to anchor this man's 800 meter freestyle relay.
A split 528.45, well over three seconds
above world record time.
Now we talked about them, we talked about earlier
about racist letting out, Tom Dolan lining up.
We said, okay, Namesnik, you can back off a little bit.
These guys cannot back off at all.
They're going to keep extending that lead
because they're fighting for a shot
to swim on the relay tonight.
And that's what's so important for all four of these guys
to be on it tonight because this morning's relay,
they don't win a gold medal if they win it tonight.
Not unlike in 84 and 88, 92,
if you swim the relay in the morning,
you still won the gold.
They changed that rule now, I think,
and you cannot win a gold medal
by swimming in the morning.
So John Olson heading the halfway point
and the final leg of his swim.
Let's talk a little bit about
the fading American distance swimmers a little bit
over the years as well.
Well, they have struggled in the middle distance program.
And this relay right here is the epitome of the struggling
that the United States has had in middle distance swimming.
200 freestyle, 400 freestyle specifically.
Yeah, like I said, like you said earlier,
they won the bronze in 92, but disappointing.
They did not have any medalists in 92.
They didn't have a medalist last night.
So they have struggled.
There's a lot of questions
about their middle distance program.
And they would, they dearly need to win this event
to put the middle distance program back on the map.
The American record is 712.51.
Ratty, you said the world record wasn't approachable.
Do you believe that the American record
is in the same category?
Maybe tonight, but there's definitely no way
they're going to do it this morning.
But the main thing is they won the heat.
They're in the finals.
And they've got a great chance to win this thing tonight.
So as Jon Olson comes to the wall,
let's check out the time.
718.28, the United States with the fastest time so far.
No one had gone under 720.
Great Britain, 721.92 will be seated second
in the men's 800 meter freestyle relay tonight.
Australia, Rowdy, who you felt had a good chance
in this event, really a surprising fourth seed
as the Americans get ready to protect some tradition tonight.
All right, coming up, more gymnastics.
The women's team competition continues
at the Georgia Dome when we return.
NBC's coverage of the Centennial Olympic Games is brought.