Nathan Adrian and the One-Hundredth of a Second

On the evening of July thirty-first, twenty twelve, Nathan Adrian of Bremerton, Washington, touched the wall at the Aquatics Centre in London with his right hand. The scoreboard showed his time. Then it showed the time of James Magnussen of Australia, the world record holder and the overwhelming favorite in the men's one hundred meter freestyle. The difference between them was one one-hundredth of a second.

Adrian had won the gold medal. He was the first American man to win the Olympic one hundred freestyle since nineteen eighty-eight.

Adrian was born in Bremerton on December seventh, nineteen eighty-eight. He grew up here, went to school here, learned to swim here. His hometown named a street after him following the London Games, a recognition that a city accustomed to seeing its young people leave for Seattle or beyond occasionally produces someone who makes the whole country pay attention.

He won five Olympic gold medals across three Games: Beijing in two thousand eight, London in twenty twelve, and Rio de Janeiro in twenty sixteen. His career encompassed individual and relay events, world championships, and a professional longevity that lasted well past the point when most elite swimmers have retired.

In January of twenty nineteen, he announced a testicular cancer diagnosis. He had surgery, recovered, and returned to competition. He attempted to qualify for the twenty twenty Tokyo Olympics, held in twenty twenty-one due to the pandemic, but did not make the team.

The one-hundredth of a second in London remains the moment. Bremerton tends to produce practical people who know how to work in conditions that are not always favorable. It turns out that is not a bad preparation for the last lap of a race that comes down to a margin most timekeepers would struggle to measure.