McClatchy Washington Bureau

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BEIJING — It looked like Michael Phelps' chance for eight gold medals here was going to slip away to a French relay team that had done a little bragging before the event. But thanks to an astonishing anchor swim from Jason Lezak, Phelps' quest remains alive.

The American barely out-touched France's Alain Bernard for the gold in the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay Tuesday morning (Monday night in the United States). The U.S. team won in a world-record time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds, with France coming in second in 3:08.32.

At 32, Lezak is the oldest of the American male swimmer, and his was a race for the ages. It meant that Phelps can continue to try to break Mark Spitz's record of seven golds, set in the 1972 Olympics. Phelps on the pool deck watching Lezak bring it home, let loose a roar and flexed all of his muscles in celebration.

Phelps, who had swam in the semifinals of the 200 freestyle earlier in the morning here, took the first leg of the 4x100. The U.S. trailed just a bit after that, but edged in front on the second leg by Garrett Weber-Gale. Cullen Jones, who is a stronger 50-meter swimmer than at 100 meters, had the third leg and fell behind.

In fact, when Lezak made the turn on the anchor leg, the United States still trailed. It looked like Phelps was going to come away with a silver. Somehow, though, Lezak was able to turn it on enough to catch up to Bernard.

"We were all fired up," Phelps said of the rivalry with the French. "Jason swam one of the fastest relays of all time. His last 50 meters were absolutely incredible."

U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff won her second medal of the Olympics, taking a silver in the 400-meter freestyle. She touched the wall just behind Australia's Rebecca Adlington, who had a winning time of 4:03.22 to Hoff's 4:03.29.

A bit of a surprise was Christine Magnuson's silver in the women's 100 butterfly for the United States. She finished in 57.10 seconds behind the favorite, Australia's Libby Trickett (56.73).

Brendan Hansen was favored to win gold, but instead he ended up without a medal in the 100-meter breaststroke. For Hansen, it was another disappointment in a summer that didn't work out as he'd planned.

He fully expected to make the Olympic team in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, but struggled at the U.S. Olympic trials in the latter race.

"I had a bad day on the worst day to have one," he said. "Normally, I win that race by a body length."

So he came to Beijing in only the 100, where he finished fourth in a time of 59.57 seconds. Winner Kosuke Kitajima of Japan broke the world record with a 58.91.

"It's just been a really tough year for me," Hansen said. "Obviously, losing the 200 breaststroke at trials kind of hurt my confidence at little bit.

"I felt good going into this race. Everybody brought their 'A' game and swam really well. It's a true testament to how well Beijing has done to allow the athletes to perform at their peak."

Another world record fell, this one in the semifinals, as Kristy Coventry of Zimbabwe swam 58.77 in the women's backstroke. That broke the previous record of American Natalie Coughlin, who swam in the first semifinal here and won in 59.43.