Leonel Manzano’s handle of Leo the Lion was never more in evidence than Tuesday night at the London Olympics when the TexEx showed incredible heart to barrel from far behind all the way to a historic silver medal in the 1500 meters. Manzano’s fabulous effort ended an American medal drought in the 1500 that extended all the way back to 1968 when Jim Ryun placed second to Kip Keino.

Despite a slow pace, Manzano was mired near the back of the field for nearly the entire race and, by his own admission, was struggling. The 5-5 Austin resident from Marble Falls was repeatedly bumped in the early going and couldn’t establish a rhythm.

“It felt like the race was very fast,” said Manzano, the Olympic Trials champ. “I’m not sure if it was fast because I was being bumped around, but I tried to just stay focused on staying calm.”

Even so, Manzano had plenty of moments when his confidence was challenged. On the final lap, when the field began to move, Manzano was still trapped on the inside and appeared out of medal contention.

Even with 200 meters to go, Leo the Lion was eighth. But, says Manzano, “Coming off the turn, I asked the big man for some help.”

The big man must have responded because Manzano said, “My legs felt like bricks, but something inside of me just said, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep pushing, keep pushing.’ I definitely felt a surge of energy through my body and the next thing I knew I was in second.”

In the final 100 meters, Manzano was in full flight on the outside and remarkably, passed seven runners to grab second and the silver medal in a time of 3:34.79 (his fastest time of the year). Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi won the gold medal in 3:34.08.

Makhloufi was fortunate to even be in the 1500 final as he had been booted out of it on Monday because he stopped running in an 800 heat, citing an unspecified injury. Because of his lack of effort in the 800, he was originally DQ’ed from the 1500, but after protests from his delegation, he was reinstated.

Nevertheless, Manzano, who had refused to speak to the media during the first two rounds of the 1500, was ecstatic with his silver medal. “I know he {Makhloufi} won, but I feel like I won too.”

The 27-year-old Manzano, who was spiked, did not have a great explanation how he scooted from nearly last to second against the world’s greatest 1500-meter runners. “I can’t really tell you how I came from 10th to second. You can run this race 10 times with everybody in this mix and anyone can win. The stars just have to be aligned for you. Today was definitely my day.”

No doubt about that.