This Is The Deficit Allison Schmitt Just Erased To Win Gold For Team USA In The Women's 4x200 Free

The 4x200-meter freestyle relay just ended, and, as you'll learn tonight on NBC, the American women won gold. The hero of today's race was not Missy Franklin, everybody's favorite teenage superstar, but Allison Schmitt, the 22-year-old from the University of Georgia. (The photo above comes from Tuesday's competition, when Schmitt won gold in the individual 200-meter freestyle swim.) Franklin got out to an early lead but tired before her leg was over, and until Schmitt, the anchor, entered the pool, it looked like the Australians would take the gold.

But then Allison Schmitt did this:

The first photo shows the Australian swimmer, Alicia Coutts, with her legs poking out of the pool as Schmitt leaves the blocks. The second photo shows the end of the race, when Schmitt finished ahead of Coutts by 1.49 seconds and set an Olympic record. Allison Schmitt is awesome.