Anchor leg refers to the final position in a relay race. The term is commonly used with respect to relays in athletics. Typically, the anchor leg of a relay is given to the fastest or most experienced competitor on a team. The athlete completing the anchor leg of a relay is responsible for making up ground on the race-leader or preserving the lead already secured by their teammates.
Carl Lewis never failed to win a race when he 'anchored' the U.S. 4 x 100 m relay team. He regularly ran under 9 seconds for his anchor legs and helped the U.S. team break the World Record in the 4 x 100 m relay five times. The record set by the U.S. at the 1992 Summer Olympics of 37.40 seconds stood for 16 years.
Anchoring the U.S. sprint relay team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Evelyn Ashford ran a reported 9.77 seconds, the fastest time ever for a woman over 100 metres. The U.S. team of Alice Brown (first leg), Jeanette Bolden (second leg) and Chandra Cheeseborough (third leg) won by the biggest margin in the event's history.
In some cases, athletes who are not top performers in individual events excel when given the responsibility of anchoring a relay. Phil Brown, a U.K. 400 m runner, won Olympic, World and European championship medals as the anchor leg runner for his national 4 x 400 m relay team despite never having medalled and rarely having advanced beyond the preliminary rounds individually. Although she placed 8th individually in the 100 m, Pam Marshall ran the anchor leg for the American 4 x 100 m team at the 1987 World Athletics Championships in Rome and beat Marlies Göhr in the final with an anchor leg timed at 10.11 s to Gohr's 10.41 s.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Jason Lezak was the oldest male on the U.S. swim team. He anchored the U.S. 4×100 m freestyle relay team that won the gold medal and set a new world record.