Exit Rowdy, Enter the Champ.

We do enjoy our Olympic swimming

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There’s no way NBC Sports can find another Rowdy Gaines to call swimming, which is why Gaines’ announcement that the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be his swan song is such a gut-punch. We judge most Olympic commentators by how they do once every two or four years, and we make those judgments pretty much snap-instantly – and even by that arbitrary standard, Rowdy is a treasure.

So no, there won’t be another Gaines. But maybe there doesn’t have to be.

There just needs to be a first Michael Phelps.