Jason Lezak Biography

American swimming executive (born 1975)

Olympic Games 2000 Sydney 4×100 m medley 2004 Athens 4×100 m medley 2008 Beijing 4×100 m freestyle 2008 Beijing 4×100 m medley 2000 Sydney 4×100 m freestyle 2012 London 4×100 m freestyle 2004 Athens 4×100 m freestyle 2008 Beijing 100 m freestyleWorld Championships (LC) 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m medley 2005 Montreal 4×100 m freestyle 2005 Montreal 4×100 m medley 2007 Melbourne 4×100 m freestyle 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m freestyle 2011 Shanghai 4×100 m freestyleWorld Championships (SC) 2002 Moscow 4×100 m freestyle 2002 Moscow 4×100 m medley 2004 Indianapolis 100 m freestyle 2004 Indianapolis 4×100 m freestyle 2004 Indianapolis 4×100 m medley 2006 Shanghai 4×100 m medley 2006 Shanghai 4×100 m freestylePan Pacific Championships 2002 Yokohama 50 m freestyle 2002 Yokohama 4×100 m medley 2006 Victoria 4×100 m freestyle 2006 Victoria 4×100 m medley 2010 Irvine 4×100 m freestyle 1999 Sydney 4×100 m freestyle 2006 Victoria 100 m freestyle 2002 Yokohama 4×100 m freestyleUniversiade 1997 Catania 4×100 m freestyleMaccabiah Games 2009 Israel 50 m freestyle 2009 Israel 100 m freestyle 2009 Israel 4×100 m freestyle 2009 Israel 4×100 m medley

Jason Edward Lezak (born November 12, 1975) is an American former compe*ive swimmer 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 and eight Olympic medals.

Lezak is 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 has been called the greatest Olympic swimming relay race of all time.

Lezak has served as the general manager of the Cali Condors, which is part of the International Swimming League.

Personal life

Lezak was born in Irvine, California, the son of Linda (née Mann), a former elementary school science teacher, and David Lezak, a former leather goods salesman. He is Jewish. 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, as well as the University of California, Santa Barbara. He swam for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos swimming and diving team from 1995 to 1998. Lezak lives in Orange County, California with his wife Danielle and 3 kids who are Ryan, Blake, and Layla.

Swimming career

Olympics

Lezak has competed in four Olympic Games, in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012, 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 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 anc*d 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 Brazilian swimmer César Cielo Filho in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 47.67.

In the final race of these games Lezak anc*d the U.S. 4×100-meter medley relay to a gold medal securing Michael Phelps's final gold medal to break Mark Spitz'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 and Lezak swam for the U.S. team in the preliminaries. Nathan Adrian, Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones and Ryan Lochte swam in the finals, and together all these compe*ors 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 compe*ions

In short-course compe*ions, 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 at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

Lezak p*ed up on attending the 2009 World Aquatics Championships to compete in the 18th Maccabiah Games 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, 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, 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 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 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. In 2006 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

See also

• List of select Jewish swimmers
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event
• List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
• List of United States records in swimming
• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men)
• List of world records in swimming
• World record progression 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay
• World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jason Lezak.

• Jason Lezak at World Aquatics
• Jason Lezak at Olympics.com
• Jason Lezak at Olympedia
• Jason Lezak at USA Swimming (archived April 7, 2022)
• Jason Lezak at Team USA (archive July 11, 2022)