The 4x100m freestyle relay final, on the night of Day One at the Sydney Olympics, September 16, 2000.

The United States had never lost the Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, winning all 7 editions between 1964 and 1996 (It wasn’t on the program in 1976 and 1980), and of course, the build-up to the race was dominated by American swimming ace Gary Hall Jr., who had overcome a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis just to make it to another Olympic Games, and just under a month before arriving in Sydney he posted an article for CNN about Australia on August 22, which all told was favourable to Australia and Australian people, but contained one fabled line that was taken out of context by the Australian media:

“My biased opinion says that we will smash them like guitars.”

Some 20 years later, Hall remarked when talking to former Australian swimmer Brett Hawke that “I cringe when I hear it, especially when it’s in an Australian accent”

While history shows Hall’s smash them like guitars comment was to be proven wrong, his closing words were spot on.

With a parochial 17,500 strong crowd at the Sydney Aquatic Centre, the world witnessed great swimming that Saturday night, beginning with Michael Klim’s lead-off leg of 48.18s to smash the 100m freestyle world record that had stood for 6 years, and capped off by the almighty anchor leg featuring Hall against Ian Thorpe, who had won the 400m freestyle in world record time barely an hour before, with the caviar being Dennis Cometti’s commentary for Channel 7.

“I don’t think we blew it (The relay) at all, our effort was something to be proud of – The United States team was close to a second and a half underneath the existing world record, but we weren’t the best people in the pool that night.”

“This is the Olympics, all or nothing. I doff my swimming cap to the great Ian Thorpe. He had a better finish than I had.” – Hall Jr

Among other things out of the race:

As was alluded to by Hall in the IOC’s documentary about the 2000 Olympic Games, the American team beat their own 4x100m freestyle world record by 1.25 seconds (August 12, 1995) but still lost the race.

Three out of the four American swimmers recorded faster times than the Australians – Hall Jr’s anchor split was 6-hundreths faster than Thorpe (48.24 vs 48.30), Jason Lezak was 0.29 faster than Ashley Callus (48.42 vs 48.71), Neil Walker was 0.17 faster than Chris Fydler (48.31 vs 48.48), but Klim’s world record lead-off smashed Anthony Ervin by 0.71.

Michael Klim’s 100m freestyle World Record lasted all of 3 days, when it was bettered by Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in the semi finals, setting a 47.84 and breaking the 48 second barrier, a record that stood for 8 years at the height of the supersuit era.

Hall Jr, who was the first to congratulate the Australian team after winning the 4x100m freestyle, went on to win 50m freestyle and anchor the 4x100m medley in a world record time (In which he overpowered Klim to win the race), after which the victorious American team unfurled a banner that said:

“Sydney 2000. In our hearts forever. Thanks Australia.”

Gary Hall Jr, a man wrongly remembered as a villain by many Australians, but above all else was/is a great competitor & good bloke who helped make that race one of the greatest Australian Olympic moments in history, and one of the most memorable moments from an Olympic Games regarded as the greatest ever.

Of course, another fabled event happened at the Sydney Olympics 25 years ago today….

The Dream with Roy and HG first went to air!