After his heroic/historic relay anchor, I anticipate increased curiosity about Jason Lezak. Here are some interesting tidbits.

Lezak is 32, which before-Dara, was considered quite an advanced age for an elite swimmer. While he joined the Irvine Novaquatics team at age 5 and has never swum for any other USS club (how many other Olympians or elites still represent the club they swam for as novices?), he was fortunate to avoid the high-pressure expectations that often lead to premature retirement.
He was a high school All-American in water polo, and played basketball until the 10th grade. He played baseball and soccer while growing up. He says the other sports prevented him from experiencing burnout.

He swam for UC Santa Barbara, graduating in 1999, but was never among the top college swimmers. In fact, he never won a US National title until Summer Nationals in 2002, when he was already 27.

Lezak won the 100 free at the 2004 U.S. Trials, breaking the American record in semifinals. He failed to qualify for the 100 final in Athens but finished 5th in the 50. He also won Olympic gold in the 4×100 medley relay and a bronze in the 4×100 free relay. At the 2000 Sydney Games, he won a silver in the 4×100 free relay and a gold as a prelim swimmer in the 4×100 medley relay.

Lezak is possibly the only self-coached world-elite swimmer. (Does anyone know of another self-coached swimmer who is likely to medal at Beijing?) He says he prefers coaching himself now because it allows him to make instant intuitive adjustments in technique and training. As well, coaches of elite athletes are often responsible for the care and feeding of a dozen or more athletes. Jason has no competition for his own complete attention. He says he has no problem motivating himself..

I think that so many of these unique aspects of Lezak’s experience helped prepare him for his astounding swim last night. The maturity, experience and perspective gained from lasting 27 years in the sport — possible because his development was unpressured and unhurried — are reflected in his confidence to coach himself, and his demonstrated ability to be highly effective as his own coach, resulting in steady improvement to an unprecedented age (Torres has taken repeated breaks and has always relied on coaches.) They also undoubtedly helped him maintain a "cocoon of focus" when catching Bernard looked impossibl