Past his prime at '84 Olympics, Rowdy Gaines hit his peak in Los Angeles

Rowdy Gaines will never forget the feeling.

His Olympic record-breaking time of 49.08 in the 100-meter freestyle had just won him his first individual gold medal, and as he stood atop the podium he felt relief. He felt exaltation.

“Forty years later, I remember every single detail of what that moment was like,” Gaines said of the sound of "The Star Spangled Banner" filling Los Angeles’ sun-soaked Olympic Swim Stadium.

At 25 years old, Gaines was supposed to be past his best when 1984 rolled around. He had once been the best swimmer in the world. But that was in 1980, and he and every other U.S. Olympic athlete could not compete in the Moscow Games because of the U.S.-led boycott protesting the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

“I was going to have to reinvent myself and train for another four years,” Gaines said of the boycott. “It was really hard emotionally to be able to handle that.”

After a break from swimming post-boycott, Gaines said he “barely” made the 1984 team.

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“I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth,” he said. “It felt a little awkward because I was the oldest guy on the team. But I also felt a tremendous sense of peace because I was really proud of the journey I had taken.”

In Gaines’ mind, he would need magic to win the race. At the same time, he felt like he deserved it most.

“All the guys in that final were younger,” Gaines said. “I felt like … ‘You guys don’t deserve it. You haven’t sacrificed for the last eight years … this is my one moment.’’”

The magical moment Gaines desperately wanted finally came when he leaped off the starting blocks. He led the entire race, never faltering.

“My coach prepared me perfectly for the start. I had a perfect turn. Everything fell in place,” he recalled. “Usually you make mistakes in a race. It was mistake-free for me.”

Gaines touched the wall and looked up. There was joy and relief on his face as he pumped his fist in the air and held his face in his hands. The gold medal that would hang around his neck cemented him in history. It absolved all the pain from the four years prior. He was at the top again.

“I thought, this is the last moment I’m going to have in my career to be at my very best …,” Gaines said. “And I think I was blessed on that block that day.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Past his prime at '84 Olympics, Rowdy Gaines hit his peak in Los Angeles