Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay
Rank Heat Lane Nationality Names Time Notes
1 1 4 United States Nathan Adrian ( 48.82 ) Cullen Jones ( 47.61 ) Ben Wildman-Tobriner ( 48.03 ) Matt Grevers ( 47.77 ) 3:12.23 Q , WR
2 2 4 France Amaury Leveaux ( 47.76 ) OR Grégory Mallet ( 48.14 ) Boris Steimetz ( 49.83 ) Frédérick Bousquet ( 46.63 ) 3:12.36 Q , EU
3 1 5 Australia Andrew Lauterstein ( 48.68 ) Leith Brodie ( 48.42 ) Patrick Murphy ( 48.09 ) Matt Targett ( 47.22 ) 3:12.41 Q , OC
4 2 5 Italy Alessandro Calvi ( 48.58 ) Christian Galenda ( 47.67 ) Michele Santucci ( 49.56 ) Filippo Magnini ( 46.84 ) 3:12.65 Q
5 1 3 Sweden Stefan Nystrand ( 48.31 ) Petter Stymne ( 48.41 ) Lars Frölander ( 48.35 ) Jonas Persson ( 47.66 ) 3:12.73 Q
6 2 3 South Africa Lyndon Ferns ( 48.20 ) Roland Mark Schoeman ( 48.85 ) Ryk Neethling ( 48.51 ) Darian Townsend ( 47.50 ) 3:13.06 Q , AF
7 1 2 Canada Brent Hayden ( 48.28 ) Joel Greenshields ( 48.06 ) Rick Say ( 49.11 ) Colin Russell ( 48.23 ) 3:13.68 Q
8 2 1 Great Britain Simon Burnett ( 48.20 ) NR Adam Brown ( 48.43 ) Ben Hockin ( 48.55 ) Ross Davenport ( 48.51 ) 3:13.69 Q , NR
9 2 6 Russia Yevgeny Lagunov ( 48.45 ) Andrey Grechin ( 48.08 ) Andrey Kapralov ( 49.07 ) Sergey Fesikov ( 48.47 ) 3:14.07
10 1 6 Netherlands Mitja Zastrow ( 49.40 ) Pieter van den Hoogenband ( 47.17 ) Bas van Velthoven ( 49.08 ) Robert Lijesen ( 49.25 ) 3:14.90
11 1 7 New Zealand Mark Herring ( 49.73 ) Cameron Gibson ( 48.07 ) Willy Benson ( 48.65 ) Orinoco Faamausili-Banse ( 48.96 ) 3:15.41 NR
12 2 7 China Chen Zuo ( 49.16 ) Huang Shaohua ( 48.83 ) Lü Zhiwu ( 48.72 ) Cai Li ( 49.45 ) 3:16.16 AS
13 2 8 Switzerland Dominik Meichtry ( 48.96 ) Karel Novy ( 48.60 ) Flori Lang ( 49.34 ) Adrien Perez ( 49.90 ) 3:16.80
14 1 8 Japan Takuro Fujii ( 49.15 ) Hisayoshi Sato ( 48.92 ) Masayuki Kishida ( 50.00 ) Yoshihiro Okumura ( 49.21 ) 3:17.28
15 1 1 Germany Steffen Deibler ( 49.61 ) Jens Schreiber ( 49.58 ) Benjamin Starke ( 49.65 ) Paul Biedermann ( 49.15 ) 3:17.99
2 2 Brazil César Cielo ( 47.91 ) Rodrigo Castro ( 49.23 ) Fernando Silva ( 49.53 ) Nicolas Oliveira DSQ
Results -- Heats
The men's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10-11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. Trailing the French by nearly 6/10th of a second entering the final leg, the U.S. men's team came from behind to set a new world record and most importantly, to capture the elusive freestyle relay title after 12 years. Diving into the pool at the final exchange, Jason Lezak chased down world record-holder Frenchman Alain Bernard on the 50-metre final length and touched the wall first with a scintillating anchor time of 46.06, the fastest ever split in the event's history, to deliver the foursome of Michael Phelps (47.51, an American record), Garrett Weber-Gale (47.02), and Cullen Jones (47.65) the gold-medal in a world-record time of 3:08.24. Lezaks comeback is often considered to be the greatest the sport has ever seen. After the 1st three legs, France's Amaury Leveaux (47.91), Fabien Gilot (47.05), and Frédérick Bousquet (46.63) had delivered Bernard a lead of more than a half-second (.59). However, despite producing the 3rd-fastest split of the event, Bernard's time of 46.73 was still 0.67 seconds slower than Lezak's split, leaving the French team with the Silver medal in a European record of 3:08.32. Meanwhile, Eamon Sullivan smashed the world record split of 47.24 to hand the Aussies an early lead, but his teammates Andrew Lauterstein (47.87), Ashley Callus (47.55), and Matt Targett (47.25) could not maintain the pace in the succeeding laps to end the race with a bronze-medal time of 3:09.91. Italy's Alessandro Calvi (48.49), Christian Galenda (47.49), Marco Belotti (48.23), and Filippo Magnini (47.27) finished fourth in 3:11.65, while the Swedish foursome of Petter Stymne (49.17), five-time Olympian Lars Frölander (48.02), Stefan Nystrand (47.25), and Jonas Persson (47.48) cracked a 3:12-barrier to earn a fifth spot in 3:11.92. Outside the club, Canada's Brent Hayden (47.56, a national record), Joel Greenshields (47.77), Colin Russell (48.49), and three-time Olympian Rick Say (48.44) posted a sixth-place time of 3:12.26, while defending Olympic champions and South African quartet of Lyndon Ferns (48.15), Darian Townsend (48.11), Roland Mark Schoeman (48.32), and Ryk Neethling (48.08) produced a seventh-place effort and an African record of 3:12.66 to lower their standard by more than half a second. Great Britain's Simon Burnett (48.34), Adam Brown (47.75), Benjamin Hockin (48.50), and Ross Davenport (48.28) rounded out the field in eighth place at 3:12.87. Due to the presence of technology suits in the pool, all eight teams completed a historic relay finish under a 3:13-barrier. Earlier in the prelims, the U.S. men's team of Nathan Adrian (48.82), Cullen Jones (47.61), Ben Wildman-Tobriner (48.03), and Matt Grevers (47.77) took down the world record of 3:12.23 to cut off their own standard by 23-hundredths of a second.