And probably, in their collegiate experience, being the best on their team, they probably ran the anchor leg.

NPR: Anchor-Leg Strength May Be Hurting Relay Handoffs

Britain's Philip Taylor then battled on the anchor leg to finish behind Italy.

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In the 4X100-meter freestyle relay, teammate Jason Lezak trailed by almost six-tenths of a second when he entered the pool for his anchor leg.

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The 20-year-old Agnel, just a day after swimming an amazing anchor leg in leading France to victory in the men's 4x100 meter free style relay, routed the field in the 200-meter freestyle.

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So, you end up with your pool made of maybe three-quarters of the guys who have experience running the anchor leg and they don't have much experience running other legs on the relay.

NPR: Anchor-Leg Strength May Be Hurting Relay Handoffs

The time it took Bob Hayes, who died this fall at the too-young age of 59, to cover 100 meters during his anchor leg of the 400-meter relay in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

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They placed him as anchor, the final leg, and a position he'd rarely run.

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He pulled away from Team USA anchor Ryan Bailey about half way through the final leg to cross the line in a time of 36.84 seconds, beating the previous record of 37.04 seconds.

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