It was the family sweep in the women's 800 -- three Clark women on their way to Sydney by finishing 1-2-3.

It was the reaction of family patriarch Joe Clark, the tough-talking, baseball bat-wielding former high school principal portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the movie Lean On Me.

It was the third-place finish of his daughter Joetta Clark-Diggs -- by 1/100th of a second -- to ever so narrowly make her fourth and final Olympic team before retiring.

Hazel Clark (center), Jearl Miles-Clark (left) and Joetta Clark-Diggs (right) head to the finish of the 800. (AP)

It was the fact that Clark-Diggs, her sister Hazel Clark (the winner) and their sister-in-law Jearl Miles-Clark (the second-place finisher) are coached by J.J. Clark. He's Joe's son, Joetta and Hazel's brother and Miles-Clark's husband. There are enough players here for a Brady Bunch matrix.

"My heart beats with glee," Joe Clark said. "There is a choir rehearsal deep down in the marrow of my bones."

If that sounds like one of the more eloquent descriptions of athletic joy in recent memory, listen to what he had to say about Joetta's narrow third-place finish. It was delivered in the confident, rich voice of a man who makes a living as a professional speaker.

"Remember this," Joe Clark said. "The dice of the gods is loaded. This was meant to be."

As the Clarks sat on the dais in the interview tent, the much-hyped 200-meter race between Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene was about to go off. The women attracted a relatively small media crowd, and even then a few reporters snuck out early to catch the 200.

But the family achievement, apparently unprecedented in Olympic history, was about so much more than media attention. And in the next few months, there will be no shortage of that anyway.

Under a blazing sun that caused Miles-Clark to collapse after the race, Hazel finished in 1 minute, 58.97 seconds, Miles-Clark in 1:59.12 and Clark-Diggs in 1:59.49. Clark-Diggs narrowly defeated Meredith Rainey-Valmon for the final Olympic spot in the event. It took two minutes for the judges to examine photos of the finish before declaring Clark-Diggs the third-place finisher.

"As we were walking to the track, I heard people say, 'Come on Clark sisters, let's do it,'" Clark-Diggs said. "That was so inspiring. I think the fans and the media wanted this to happen. I'm glad I didn't blow it for us."

Clark-Diggs, 37, was competing in her sixth Olympic Trials. For 21 years, she has been ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. in the 800. She is a motivational speaker, running her own company, Joetta Sports & Beyond.

Miles-Clark, 33, won an Olympic gold medal in the 1,600 relay in 1996. She won the 400 world title in 1993 and set an American record in the 800 last year with a time of 1:56.40.

Hazel, 22, was the NCAA 800-meter champion at Florida in 1998.

But among the Clarks and their coach, a former All-America track athlete at Villanova, only Joetta felt comfortable in the 800. Joe Clark, the intimidating principal at Eastside High in Paterson, N.J., for eight years, had very specific ideas about the virtues of middle-distance running and beyond.

"I refuse to let any of my progeny, my children, reinforce the idea that blacks only run sprints," he said. "So I declared this: They could run the 800, the mile, two miles and cross country. It builds discipline. It builds character."

He said his kids were exposed to as many activities as possible, including piano, bowling, violin, drama and dance. Hazel is a former figure skater.

J.J. and Jearl met at a track meet in 1989 and were married in 1996. The idea of an all-Clarks U.S. team in the Olympics came up at the 1997 U.S. championships, the first time all three women ran together. Hazel's victory in the 800 at the U.S. Indoors earlier this year gave the family confidence that it could happen.

But to hear the women, they needed J.J., 35, a coach at the University of Florida.

"I think my brother is a magic man," Hazel Clark said. "He has a knack for coaching that I can't describe. The workouts he puts together, the way he deals with athletes. Joetta and I are totally different personalities. Think about that: coaching his sisters and his wife. That's hard. He stays at the track from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. He takes anyone who wants to train. He doesn't ask for money. He's just a great coach."

As if this story needed more feel-good material, Jetta Clark, Joe's wife, was present at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium to see the 800, despite suffering a stroke recently.

"It just made me so happy to see my mom with tears in her eyes after I won the race," Hazel Clark said.

The Olympics are often about bribery and drugs. They're also about the Clarks.

"That's the story the American people need to hear instead of the down side of the sport," Clark-Diggs said.