Jason Edward Lezak (born November 12, 1975) is an American former competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

and swimming executive. As a swimmer, Lezak specialized in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle races. His pro career lasted for nearly fifteen years, spanning four

Olympic games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

and eight Olympic medals. Lezak is best known for his performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics as the anchor for the United States during the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Olympic swimming relay races of all-time. Currently, Lezak serves as the general manager of the Cali Condors, which is part of the International Swimming League.

Personal life

Lezak was born in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...

, the son of Linda (née Mann), a former elementary school science teacher, and David Lezak, a former leather goods salesman.http://usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1453&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&biosid=614353d8-9dbd-4f8f-9766-0b90730d9ce7 He is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. The name Lezak is pronounced Leh-Zhack and is Polish (short e). Lezak attended El Camino Real Elementary School (now Woodbury Elementary School) and

Irvine High School Irvine High School is a public high school, located in the city of Irvine in Orange County, California, United States. It is part of the Irvine Unified School District. The school is located in the El Camino Real neighborhood in the north-central ...

, as well as the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

. He swam for the

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams who represent the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I ...

swimming and diving team from 1995 to 1998. Lezak currently lives in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

with his wife Danielle and 3 kids.

Swimming career

Olympics

Lezak has competed in four Olympic Games, in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

, and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, and has won eight Olympic medals; two bronze, two silver, and four gold.

2000 Olympics

Lezak earned his first long-course international swimming gold medal at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney, where he was part of the 4×100-meter medley relay in the Olympics in Sydney. He also won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

2004 Olympics

Lezak competed in several events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, and was a member of the 4×100-meter medley relay team that set a new world record and earned another gold medal at the games. Lezak also won a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay and finished fifth in the 50-meter freestyle.

2008 Olympics

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Lezak was the oldest male on the U.S. swim team. He anchored the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team that won the gold medal and set a new world record. At the start of the leg, Lezak trailed French anchor Alain Bernard by nearly a full body length. In the final 25 meters, with Bernard still leading by half a body length, Lezak overtook Bernard. At the time, Lezak's split of 46.06 was the fastest 100-meter freestyle split ever by nearly 0.6 seconds (at the 2019 World Championships Duncan Scott swam a 46.14 in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay to reduce that margin to 0.08 seconds). The American team's final time of 3:08:24 was just 0.08 seconds ahead of the French team's 3:08.32, making it the closest finish in the event's history. Both teams finished nearly four seconds ahead of the previous world record. Lezak also earned his first individual Olympic medal, having tied for bronze with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian swimmer César Cielo Filho in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 47.67. In the final race of these games Lezak anchored the U.S. 4×100-meter medley relay to a gold medal securing

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold med ...

's final gold medal to break

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the Lists of Olympic medalists#Medalist with most medals by Olympiad, most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympi ...

's record.

2012 Olympics

Lezak qualified for his fourth Olympics at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. His sixth-place finish in the Olympic Trial finals was good enough to reach the London Games as a member of the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, Jimmy Feigen, Matt Grevers,

Ricky Berens Richard "Ricky" Berens (born April 21, 1988) is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and current world record-holder. As a member of the U.S. national team, he holds the world record in the 4× ...

and Lezak swam for the U.S. team in the preliminaries. Nathan Adrian,

, Cullen Jones and

Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured ...

swam in the finals, and together all these competitors earned a silver medal for the team's second-place finish in the finals. Lezak became the first male swimmer in Olympic history to win four medals in the same event, the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

Short course competitions

In short-course competitions, Lezak won five world championships: four relays including the 2002 4x100m freestyle and medley, and 2004 4x100m freestyle, and a gold in the 100-meter freestyle in 2004. Lezak has also won seven U.S. Championships, three times in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.

2009; Maccabiah Games

Lezak passed up on attending the 2009 World Aquatics Championships to compete in the 18th

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-s ...

in Israel from July 12 to 29, 2009. Lezak was given the honor of lighting the Maccabiah torch at the Opening Ceremony. At the 2009 Maccabiah Games, Lezak won gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and 4×100-meter medley relay. At the

2017 Maccabiah Games The 2017 Maccabiah Games ( he, משחקי המכביה 2017), also referred to as the 20th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-20), were the 20th edition of the Maccabiah Games. They took place from 4 to 17 July 2017, in Israel. The Maccabiah ...

, in the special 4x50m relay race between Israeli and American all-star teams, American Olympic champions Lezak, Lenny Krayzelburg (four Olympic golds), and Anthony Ervin (three Olympic golds), with masters swimmer Alex Blavatnik, swam a time of 1:48.23 and defeated Israeli Olympians Guy Barnea,

Yoav Bruck Yoav Bruck ( he, יואב ברוק; born March 6, 1972, in Lakhish) is a former swimmer from Israel, who competed in three Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1992. Bruck is Jewish. He finished 32nd in the 50m freestyle (23.72) ...

, Eran Groumi, and Tal Stricker, who had a time of 1:51.25.

Executive career

Lezak serves as the general manager for the Cali Condors which is part of the International Swimming League. In 2019 the inaugural year of the league the Condors finished third place in the finals. As the top finishing American team, the Condors were led by high scorers

Caeleb Dressel Caeleb Remel Dressel (born August 16, 1996) is an American professional swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He swims representing the Cali Condors as part of the International Swimming League. He wo ...

and Lilly King.

Personal bests

His personal bests (long-course) are: * 50 m freestyle: 21.90 * 100 m freestyle: 47.58 (former American record) * 100 m freestyle relay split 46.06 (fastest relay split ever, even though

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

does not recognize world records for relay splits, unless they were in the opening leg, as only the opening leg is done from a stationary start, whereas later swimmers can lean over in the process of diving as the preceding swimmer is coming in)

Accolades

In 2003 he was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themselves ...

. In 2006 he was inducted into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere aroun ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lezak, Jason 1975 births Living people American male freestyle swimmers Jewish American sportspeople Jewish swimmers Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Maccabiah Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming Sportspeople from Irvine, California Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's swimmers World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming World record holders in swimming Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2017 Maccabiah Games Goodwill Games medalists in swimming Universiade medalists in swimming Universiade gold medalists for the United States Medalists at the 1997 Summer Universiade Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games 21st-century American Jews