. . . AND STILL CHAMPION

ATHENS, Greece - Gary Hall Jr. stepped onto the pool deck dressed like
Rocky Balboa, with a glorious star-spangled robe and boxing trunks. He
then threw a swift punch to the belly of the U.S. swimming
establishment.

He fooled them all. He won.

"I'll probably get in a lot of trouble for not wearing the team
uniform," said Hall, with a smile that was more of a sneer. "But
it's my lucky outfit."

There is no medal awarded for Most Righteously Entitled To Gloat at
these Summer Games. So let's do it here: Hall has definitely earned
it.

Instead, he will have to settle for the gold he seized Friday by
finishing first in the 50-meter freestyle, swimming's fastest and most
aerobically challenging race. It is one length of the pool, a blur of
churned water, with eight bodies plowing recklessly toward the wall.

Hall, 29, was supposed to be too old to win this race, too
free-spirited to take it earnestly, and too slow to match strokes with
today's younger speed merchants over two rounds of qualifying and into
the final.

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Ha, ha and ha.

"I think there are still people that doubt," Hall said after he
received his 10th Olympic medal. "It's hard to take me seriously
sometimes. But consistently, I've always gotten results. It's OK to
have fun. Hard work can be fun. I think having fun is an important
part of the equation."

Shhh. Don't let him say that too loud.

The United States' current marquee swimmer, Michael Phelps, has a sore
neck from all the medals he has had draped around it. He is an awesome
athlete. All hail the new Lord of Chlorinated Water.

But in terms of personality . . . um, let's just say Phelps is vanilla
all the way. That's why it was so good to see the zesty sauce and
pungent flavor of Hall rise to the top.

Want an example? For about an hour after he won the 50, Hall walked
around carrying a large potted plant. A French television network had
presented it to him after his victory. He took it with him to doping
control, back to the warm-up pool and into a news conference.

"I'm in the Coral Gables Orchid Society," Hall explained, tongue
planted so firmly in his cheek that you could see the indentation from
Macedonia.

This is Hall's third Olympics. He has acquired a grand total of five
gold medals. He has also built a reputation for living a full-on
lifestyle that includes guitar playing, an endorsement deal for
Grateful Dead sunglasses, an ongoing battle with diabetes, a
suspension for marijuana use, and a rip job against drug cheats.

Yet here was his most unforgivable act: After winning the 50 in
Sydney, when he was 25, Hall refused to retire. Hall kept himself in
shape. He pointed to Athens. He also planned to swim in at least one
team event, the 400 freestyle relay, in which the United States was
upset in 2000.

Against the odds, Hall not only qualified for the 2004 Games, he swam
the year's fastest time in the 50 at the Olympic trials. Apparently,
the U.S. coaching staff was still stunned to see him here, because
when it came time to assemble the 400 relay squad earlier this week,
Coach Eddie Reese allowed Hall to swim in a preliminary heat but
scratched him from the final -- and never personally told him why.

Hall, in response, popped off to reporters and conceded that he was
peeved.

"I didn't want to come across as bitter," he said. "I was
disappointed with the decision not to put me on the relay team, and I
didn't want to say anything more. I was bitter. I took it very
personally when the USA lost the gold medal to Australia in 2000 in
that relay, and I wanted to be on the team that won it here."

Hall felt no better when "his" relay team finished third, to South
Africa and the Netherlands, even though he received a medal for taking
part in the preliminaries.

Friday became his true night of revenge. The heats for the 50 had been
brutal, and Hall had qualified fifth, putting him out in Lane 2. He
could not see his top competition, swimming in the middle lanes.

But after 21.93 seconds, there was Hall, touching first. He
practically leaped out of the pool, shooting both of his muscular arms
into the air.

"It wasn't easy," Hall said. "I consider myself lucky to finish
first, and I'll take lucky any day. . . . I think it was my most
emotional victory. I got emotional before the medal ceremony, and I
usually don't get that way."

Duje Draganja of Croatia got the silver and South Africa's Roland Mark
Schoeman the bronze. Draganja's margin of defeat was one-hundredth of
a second, but he seemed as happy as anyone for Hall. They train
together in Berkeley (Draganja swims for Cal) and Florida, and
Draganja digs Hall's mojo.

"If I could pick anybody to beat me, it would be him," Draganja
said. "I'm not unhappy."

Neither was Hall. He is the oldest American man to win a swimming gold
medal since Duke Kahanamoku, who was 30 when he won the 100 freestyle
in 1920. He did not rule out trying to swim in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Yeah, I might," Hall said. "In 1996, I was supposed to be too
immature. In 2000, my diabetes was supposed to keep me from doing
well. And this year they said I was too old. So why not try again in
2008? Defiance is fun."

Someone then wondered about his pre-race costuming, and whether he was
indeed trying to emulate a prizefighter.

"I don't know of any heavyweight boxer who gives the peace sign,"
which is what Hall did as stepped onto the podium to accept his gold
medal.

He did not say who the target of the peace sign was. The Coral Gables
Orchid Society, perhaps.