Frenchman’s Victory Cannot Erase the Sting of Defeat in the Olympics

小臭贝

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Frenchman Fred Bousquet did not flinch when he found himself racing next to Michael Phelps on Sunday night. Drawing on his experience, Bousquet sped to a sizable lead in the first 50 meters of the 100 freestyle at the Charlotte UltraSwim and never looked back.

Bousquet’s margin of victory over Phelps was 82-hundredths of a second. It was a trouncing, the swimming equivalent of Roger Federer’s losing, love and love, in a French Open tuneup.

But the win, however great and gratifying, did not change history. When the swimmers left the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Phelps, 23, was still the winner of a record eight Olympic gold medals in Beijing, and Bousquet, 28, was still one of the four favored Frenchmen who failed to stop Phelps’s historic quest.

Nine months after the Olympics, Bousquet continues to question the logic of the last-minute decision by French swimming officials before the men’s Olympic 4x100 freestyle relay final that he says cost the team its shot at immortality.

“I’m holding my federation responsible for the loss,” he said.

Phelps’s pursuit of perfection in China was supposed to end soon after it started. After winning the 400-meter individual medley, Phelps was a member of the United States 4x100 freestyle relay team that went into the finals a decided underdog to France.

No relay team from France had won an Olympic gold medal, but that seemed destined to change. Judging by their times, the French appeared unbeatable. And in the days before the race, that is how they felt. “We were very confident,” Bousquet said. “Maybe too much.”

During a pre-Olympic training camp, the swimmers came up with their own relay order. “It was us athletes that got together and talked about every conceivable combination,” Bousquet said.

Amaury Leveaux, they decided, would lead off, the better to take advantage of his fantastic starts. In a break from convention, he would be followed by Alain Bernard, who had set the world record in the 100 freestyle five months earlier. The fastest swimmer generally is used on the first or the last legs. The thinking on Bernard was that he would find plenty of open water on the second leg and be able “to set his stroke right,” as Bousquet put it.

Also, the French expected the Australians to send off their fastest swimmer, Eamon Sullivan, first so he could try to reclaim his world record from Bernard. Bernard’s teammates believed that he would be better off not knowing if his record had survived until after his relay swim.

Fabien Gilot would swim third and give way to Bousquet, who had anchored the French relays in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. “My teammates said: ‘We trust you. You have the experience and you know how to race the U.S. guys,’ ” he said.

Competing against the Americans had become second nature to Bousquet, who attended college at Auburn and won six N.C.A.A. titles. In the months leading to the 2008 Olympics, Bousquet continued to train at Auburn, which he said the French swimming federation frowned upon.

He suspects his preference to remain in the United States and take direction from his college coach, Brett Hawke, played a role in the decision that was handed down shortly before the Frenchmen entered the pool to warm up for the 4x100 freestyle relay final.

The order had been rearranged, they were told. Leveaux was still leading off, but he would be followed by Gilot and Bousquet, with Bernard swimming the anchor leg. The swimmers were stunned, Bousquet said. He was upset. “Alain calmed me down,” he said. “He said he could handle it.”

Bousquet added: “I know I’m going to get in a lot of trouble for saying it, but I don’t care. What I believe is, whoever anchored the relay gets all the credit, all the cameras go onto him. Our federation was so confident of us winning no matter the order, and the picture of French swimming they wanted all the cameras to be put on was Alain’s face. I don’t think they did it against me. I think they did it for Alain, who was their guy.”

That plan backfired. Sullivan did lead off for Australia and lowered the world record. Trailing Sullivan was Phelps, who set an American record to put the United States in second place, two spots ahead of the French.

On the third leg Bousquet passed Cullen Jones of the United States to give Bernard a big lead, but Bernard made three tactical errors that proved costly.

He went out too fast on the first 50, a sure sign of nerves. He swam close to the lane line, which allowed the experienced American anchor, Jason Lezak, to drag off him. And in the final 25 meters, as Lezak reeled him in, Bernard peeked to see where Lezak was, which threw off his stroke ever so slightly.

The United States won the gold, beating the French by eight-hundredths of a second, or a fingernail. Bousquet returned to the United States with one medal and set his sights on another piece of swimming history: becoming the first to swim under 21 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle.

At the French national championships in April, he achieved that goal with a 20.94. This summer at the world championships in Rome, the French will set out to avenge their Olympic loss in the 4x100 freestyle relay. It has been left to the swimmers, Bousquet said, to decide the relay order.