U.S. medley relay team looks ahead

BEIJING -- Now about the future of the other members of that record-setting U.S. medley relay team.

No one was making any grand retirement announcements at a news conference on Sunday afternoon, a couple of hours after Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak helped Michael Phelps to win his record gold medal No. 8 at the Beijing Games.

Not the 32-year-old  Lezak, who also said that he knew that Peirsol was capable of swimming in two more Olympics. That was news to an amused Peirsol, who declared he didn't want to be "one of those people" to retire and then come back in two years.

"I'm still young," said Peirsol, who also won gold in the 100 backstroke and silver in the 200 backstroke. "I'm only middle-aged as far as swimming's concerned."

Hansen hinted that next year's World Championships in Rome might be his curtain call, a special occasion for his many family members with an Italian background.

"I just don't want my last race to be the 100," he said of the 100 breaststroke, in which he finished fourth, missing a medal by 0.20 seconds.

"[Kosuke] Kitajima said he's going into retirement. There's nothing like getting a guy out of retirement  than breaking his world records."

Hansen repeated something he had said earlier, comparing Phelps' accomplishment to sinking a pressure putt to win the U.S. Open, the Tour de France and knocking out Ali -- all in the same week.

"He's not worried about winning eight medals," Hansen said of Phelps.

Hansen was off and running. Teammates, he said, had been looking at Phelps without being too obvious, wondering how he was handling the pressure of trying to win the record eight gold medals. Phelps seemed oblivious to all such stress, saying, "'Man, the pizza's good today,'" Hansen reported.

This didn't stop Hansen from trying on Saturday night, just hours before the medley relay, to reassure Phelps.

Or maybe just reassure himself.

Hansen had visited Phelps' room in the athletes' village, and retold the conversation on Sunday afternoon following a news conference at the Main Press Center here.

Hansen had noticed -- who couldn't -- that Phelps' seven gold medals were hanging up in his room. Hansen described them as like "wind chimes."

"'I said, 'Michael, I won't let you down tomorrow, man,'" Hansen said. "'We're going to do this relay and we're going to do it right. We'll make this thing happen.'

"I said, 'Michael, if you make your eighth, it doesn't matter what you do from here. Nobody can ever take that away from you. And it doesn't matter if somebody says, 'Well, what about nine? You will never have to prove yourself again."

And Phelps' reaction?

"He just shook his head like, 'I can't believe this is happening.'"

Phelps ... and everyone else.

-- Lisa Dillman

Photo: From left, Brendan Hansen, Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol and Jason Lezak pose for photographers after receiving their gold medals in the men's 400-meter medley relay at the National Aquatics Center on Sunday in Beijing. Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images