Bring on the French!

Michael Phelps

The French Relay Team makes it clear: "We want to be the best in the 400M Freestyle Relay" This one is going to be a tough one for Michael as everyone wants to stop him from breaking Mark Spitz's record. With no room for error in his quest to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals, Phelps and three American teammates headed into perhaps the toughest obstacle of all on Monday morning: a showdown in the 400-meter freestyle relay against France, a team led by world record holder Alain Bernard.
The French believe they can ruin Phelps’ hopes of going eight-for-eight in a country where eight is considered a lucky number.


They’ve certainly got reason to be confident, putting up the best time of the year until a backup American squad broke the world record in the preliminaries on Sunday night. The French also went under the old mark—just 13-hundredths off the U.S. time of 3:12.23—and that was with Bernard and their other top 100 man, Fabien Gilot, resting up in preparation to join Amaury Leveaux and Frederick Bousquet in the final. It will be one of the toughest races for Michael to win. The world record will be in danger.