American Nathan Adrian swims the fastest time in the preliminary heats, in 48.19 seconds. Cesar Cielo (BRA), a favorite to win gold, finishes 5th, but quick enough to also advance to the semifinals.
LONDON — One hesitates, truly hesitates, before proclaiming that so-and-so is the next American hero.
It’s a hard deal being a role model and an all-American guy these days, when everyone has a camera phone and social media is everywhere and someone you just met abruptly wants to know everything about you. Beyond which, our heroes, as we have seen far too many times, have a way of proving themselves all too susceptible to the intoxications and pressures of being, well, a hero.
That said, if you had to pick a good-looking, hard-body guy who swims really fast, who comes from a great family, who’s emblematic of the multicultural United States of the 21st century, who’s soft-spoken and well-spoken and who on Wednesday night won the heavyweight championship of swimming, the Olympic men’s 100-meter, the first American to win it in 24 years — America, meet Nathan Adrian.
In a thrilling race at the London Aquatics Center, Adrian, a 23-year-old from Bremerton, Wash., a product of the University of California at Berkeley, out-touched Australia’s James Magnussen by one-hundredth of a second for the victory.
In swimming, it doesn’t get any closer.
Adrian touched in 47.52.
Magnussen, the 2011 world champion in the 100, in 47.53.
Brent Hayden, the first Canadian to make the 100 free final in half a century, earned the bronze, in 47.80.
Along with Michael Phelps” 100 butterfly win over Milorad Cavic in 2008 in Beijing, there had been no less than six other Olympic finals decided over the years by one-hundredth of a second. One, in Seoul in 1988, saw Anthony Nesty of Suriname defeat Matt Biondi of the United States in the 100 fly, 53.00 to 53.01.
In one of those quirks, the last American man to win the 100 free was — Matt Biondi, also in 1988. (In Olympic-record time, and by several tenths of a second.)
Like Adrian, Biondi is a Berkeley alum. “Go Bears!” Adrian said at Wednesday night’s news conference.
Adrian is one of the most genuine guys out there. He is, in a word, old-school. His parents, Jim and Cecilia, saw to it that he had values and manners. As a college senior, he introduced himself to management at USA Swimming and volunteered to help out with their programs. Who does that?
He’s also one of those guys — he has an older sister, Donella, who has been an important influence — who is not afraid to show his emotions. When you’re 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, and you’re just won the Olympic 100, it’s pretty darn OK to let it show just how happy you are and how meaningful this all is.
He said, about looking up after touching the wall and seeing the scoreboard, “It’s pretty amazing seeing a ‘1’ next to your name. I almost started crying in the water. This is something that happens every four years. It’s not who swims the fastest time this year but it’s who can get their hands on the wall first here tonight.”
He also allowed, and you can just hear the genuineness in Nathan Adrian seeping out, “I kinda touched well and, ‘Oh, sweet, I’ve won.’ Then there’s 10 to 15 seconds: ‘Holy crap, this is the Olympics. I’ve been watching this since I was a kid.’ “
To win the 100 took a long-term plan. In 2011, Adrian put up the year’s fifth-fastest time, 48.05. But at last year’s worlds, he did not medal.
The idea, obviously, was to peak here, in London, and on Wednesday, Aug. 1.
Magnussen — who went 47.63 in winning last year’s worlds — peaked in March of 2012, when he went 47.10 at the Australian Trials.
Magnussen has had a humbling week. The Australians were expected to win the 4×100 relay, and finished fourth. He was expected to win the 100, and got silver.
He said, “It hurts. I did my best tonight and it wasn’t quite good enough. It’s been a tough Olympics. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger so hopefully I can come out of this a better swimmer but most of all a better person.”
Reports of that Down Under 47.10, meanwhile, “really stepped up my training a notch,” Adrian said.
Even so, he said, while the Australians were going around talking smack about being like “weapons of mass destruction” at the London Games, he — like the rest of the American team — preferred to let the swimming do the talking.
Adrian’s style is to see himself, racing-wise, as a “fourth-grader on the playground … trying to race to the other side of the fence.” He said, “That’s the most fun thing about swimming.”
In Omaha, at the U.S. Trials, Adrian went 48.10 in winning the 100. By world-class standards, that was a decent, but not provocative, time.
Swimming the lead-off leg of the 4×100 relay here Sunday night, Adrian went 47.89. That was a personal best. To watch closely was to see him gearing up — it’s just that most of the world was so occupied with Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Yannick Agnel and Ye Shiwen that Nathan Adrian was allowed to do his thing in comparative peace.
Until the moment he touched first.
The medley relay awaits. And then the next chapter of Nathan Adrian’s life.
“My life may change now,” he acknowledged, and added, because this is the way he is, “I’ll take it all it for what it’s worth.”
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