The story of how Michael Phelps and 'the best turn ever done' made Olympic magic

Immersed in deafening Brazilian bedlam and trying to summon a dormant brilliance, Michael Phelps stood on the starting block and experienced a percussive adrenaline surge.

“When I was on the block I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest,” Phelps said. “I was so hyped tonight, so excited.”

Amid a boiling sensory cauldron, he was about to produce one of his greatest swimming moments. Which is a hell of a thing to even consider.


You might think, after winning a record 22 Olympic medals, a record 18 of which are gold, that this 400-meter freestyle relay would be business as usual. But the circumstances were highly unusual – he was on an underdog American relay, trying to help end a seven-year international losing streak in the event, and even the greatest of all swimmers’ place on this quartet was up for debate.

The story of how Michael Phelps and 'the best turn ever done' made Olympic magic

Could a guy who had tried to quit the sport twice, who hadn’t turned in a vintage Phelps swim in a year, who is a well-worn 31 years of age in a younger man’s sport – could that guy once again conjure magic when his country needed him to?

Phelps was the second man in the water for the American relay team, following teenager Caeleb Dressel. After an explosive start, the Olympic rookie showed some nerves by taking his 100-meter leg out too fast. He was overtaken in the final strokes by French leadoff man Mehdy Metella, who got the wall two hundredths of a second before Dressel.

But Phelps timed his start to a razor’s edge – a risky margin, actually. His reaction time leaving the block was .08 seconds, very nearly within range of a false start that would have disqualified the relay.

Away legally, if only barely, Phelps entered the water ahead of France’s Fabien Gilot. He surfaced with an even larger lead. And when he reached the wall after 50 meters to flip and come back, Michael Phelps produced the turn that broke the world’s back.

“Probably the best turn that’s ever been done underwater,” said Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman. “That was a serious turn.”

Bowman, who is also the U.S. men’s team head coach, was not talking about Phelps’ best turn. He was talking about anybody’s best turn.

It was that good. That devastating.

Phelps uncorked a furious series of dolphin kicks off the wall that essentially ended the race, even with 250 meters to go. He destroyed Gilot to his right, and eliminated the hopes of the Russians and Australians to his left. He emerged with a commanding lead that only grew as he churned for home.

“My kick-out was great,” Phelps said. “I just wanted to hammer it.”