Reaction from Dan Hicks & Rowdy Gaines to Michael Phelps

NBC’s Dan Hicks & Rowdy Gaines talked with the media during a conference call from Communist China just before midnight in Beijing and just before noon here on the East Coast. Here are some excerpts of their reaction to the men’s 4 x 100 meter swimming relay which was won by the US over favored France.

HICKS ON CALLING THE RELAY: "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."

GAINES ON CALLING THE RACE WITH HICKS: "Dan will be able to tell you that he now has called two of the greatest athletes, if not the two greatest athletes in history, and he got to do it in the same year with Tiger at the U.S. Open and Michael on his way to potentially making Olympic history. It was an honor to call that race." 

GAINES ON THE RACE: "It was certainly the greatest Olympic relay race I have ever seen. I have been trying to think about another race that I got more excited about and I can't think of one."

HICKS COMPARING PHELPS TO TIGER WOODS: "He is right there with Tiger Woods. I called Michael Phelps 'Tiger Woods in a Speedo' the other night. There are just so many uncanny ways that Phelps reminds me of Tiger, it's just scary. They just remind me of each other so much. If Tiger is over a putt and he has to make it, I watched him at the U.S. Open and he made it.  When Phelps needs to have some sort of magical touch to win a gold medal and get it done, he does the same thing.  It is really kind of eerie, how much those two guys remind me of each other."

GAINES ON WHEN HE SENSED THE AMERICANS COULD COME BACK TO WIN: "I sensed it a little bit at the first 50m only because he [Alain Bernard] was out so fast, and I've seen Americans do the same thing. Dan and I remember in Sydney when they all over-swam that first 50m and that's how the Australians ended up beating them. The same sort of thing happened to Bernard on that first 50m. He was out in 21.2 (seconds) -- well the world record is 21.2. He was out way too fast. At about the 75m he started tightening up but I still didn't think there was any room for Lezak to catch him because he was just so far ahead, but you could really start to feel it at about 90 meters."

GAINES ON THE EXCITEMENT OF CALLING THE RACE: "It doesn't take much for me to get excited.  I get excited about world records and fast swimming, but certainly just because of the drama behind the race, it made it more exciting."

HICKS ON CALLING THE RACE: "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."

HICKS CALLING THE RACE FOR FRANCE: "The lead that this guy {Bernard] had -- he's the world record holder in the 100m -- was certainly in my mind, insurmountable. It was just that much of a long shot. I just let my natural emotions take over that there was just no way that Lezak was going to pull it out. That's what made it so unbelievable at the end. I think that's what added to the race. The race that will now go down in lore and Olympic history just because it looked insurmountable, but the so-called impossible happened."

GAINES ON THE U.S. & FRENCH TEAMS SHATTERING THE WORLD RECORD: "When you have both relays breaking the world record by four seconds that just shows you what kind of field it was. That is just totally unheard of. The world record up until that point had been broken by tenths or hundredths of a second, now all of a sudden in one fell swoop it was four seconds." 

GAINES ON CHALLENGES FOR PHELPS: "I don't want to jinx him, I just don't see the challenge out there. The 100m is such a tricky event because it is short. That is the one that going in six months ago, everybody said was going to be the one that was really going to be the toughest one and I still think it is going to be very difficult. By then, that will be the seventh gold medal that he would be gunning for. He might be on such a roll that he would be unstoppable, but Ian Crocker and the rest of the world has gotten real fast in that event, so it's going to be a tough one."

I’m still waiting for a press release on the overnight ratings from last night. The Olympics are apparently a ratings juggernaut once again as swimming and gymnastics led the way.