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Mike Heath, at 19 one of the bright new hopes of the U.S. team, swam his 200 meters in front of the pack and beat his West German opponent by a body length. David Larson gave almost a second body length to Jeff Float, another boycott veteran, swimming his last race for the team. Float gave back a little, but when Bruce Hayes hit the water for the final leg, he had a length and a half on the Albatross. Remarkably, Gross had made up almost all of it by the end of the first 50 meters. Hayes kept a fingernail lead at the 100-meter turn. But the West German hit the last turn ahead. He held a lead through most of the closing 50 meters. Then Hayes, his arms seeming to revolve twice for every slow beat of Gross's great wings, began to claw it back. He was well behind at ten meters, still behind at five, not yet even at two. He hit the electric touchpad on the pool end-wall four-hundredths of a second ahead of Gross. Both men sagged in the water as the rest of the field finished. Then Gross, who had just swum the fastest 200 split in history, congratulated Hayes, and added one word: "Unbelievable."
This was the meet's highest drama, although U.S. men's relay teams also won their remaining races in world-record times. Swimmers continued to file in, full of resolve or resignation, and to fill the panic time before their races by ritualistically kneeling to splash water on their faces, and then slowly peeling off many layers of sweat clothes. Most of the men were powerfully built and conventionally handsome, and most of the women were spectacularly graceful. A brass band played busily for their entrances and exits, and the sun shone on them through a sky that was clear and blue overhead.
The sun was not to the liking of backstrokers, because the new Olympic pool was laid out east-west instead of north-south, and the glare got in their eyes on every turn, so they said. One backstroker, the best in the world by nearly a second, sulked on the victory stand after winning a gold in the 200 meters. This was Rick Carey of the U.S., who had cockily promised a world record, and then failed to swim it by almost a second and a half, which is to say by a ton or so. On the way out of the stadium he did not wave at the crowd or acknowledge the cheers of his teammates. He got booed. Carey later issued a written apology to fans. A few days later he got another gold, in the 100 meters, and though this too was no record, he managed a smile.
In one race, the 100-meter freestyle, a fast-gun start left everyone except U.S. Veteran Rowdy Gaines flatfooted, and Gaines, who is retiring, set an Olympic record. West German Thomas Fahrner got so angry at himself for failing to qualify for the 400-meter freestyle that in the consolation he broke the brand-new Olympic record just set by George DiCarlo of the U.S. He got an Olympic record, a big hand, but no medal.