ATHENS, 17 August 2004 — Ian Thorpe became Australia’s greatest Olympian and staked a claim to being the best swimmer of his generation when he won “the race of the century” at Athens yesterday.

Thorpe left both Pieter van den Hoogenband and American Michael Phelps in his wash as he triumphed in the 200 meters freestyle final, giving him his second gold medal in Athens and the fifth of his career.

Thorpe trailed Dutchman van den Hoogenband through the first 150 but powered away on the final lap to touch first in one minute 44.71 seconds. Van den Hoogenband was second in 1:45.23 and Phelps third in 1:45.32. Both would have won gold at any other Olympics but it was not good enough to beat Thorpe, who became the first Australian to win five Olympic gold medals.

“I swam the race I trained to swim, I made sure it was my race,” Thorpe said. “I’m a more mature swimmer now, more experienced, and I worked damn hard for this.”

China won their first swimming gold in eight years yesterday when two-time world champion Luo Xuejuan won the women’s 100 breaststroke while Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol combined to win the 100 backstroke double for the United States.

Luo, swimming in the outside lane, shot past the Australian pair of Brooke Hanson and Leisel Jones to win in 1:06.64 while the two Americans both hung on to win their events. Coughlin held off Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry and French teenager Laure Manadou to win in 1:00.37 while Peirsol got to the wall in 54.06 — just ahead of Austrian Markus Rogan and Tomomi Morita of Japan.

But their achievements were all torpedoed by the titanic 200 freestyle final, which lived up to all its hype. Van den Hoogenband set out at a cracking pace, leading the field through the first 150 under world record pace.

He was still in front turning for home world record holder Thorpe, who had been second all the way, mowed him down in the last 25 meters to win by half a body length.

Phelps was fourth after 50 but moved into third at the halfway stage and was not able to improve his position despite a late surge.

Phelps was promised $1 million if he could win at least seven gold medals in Athens, emulating the achievement of Mark Spitz at Munich in 1972, but his dream is over after just three days.

“How can I be disappointed ... he is one of if not the greatest middle-distance freestylers of all time,” Phelps said of Thorpe. “In my opinion he has a perfect stroke. It’s unbelievable how he moves through the water. It’s pretty to watch.”

Van den Hoogenband beat Thorpe to win the 200 gold in Sydney, and still holds the 100 world record, but was also in awe of the big Australian.

“I told him we were even now,” van den Hoogenband said, before adding: “I gave it my best shot but he is the man in this distance.”

Thorpe won his first world title as a 15-year-old and, after winning three golds and two silvers at Sydney two years later, he also flirted with the idea of trying to match Spitz’s 1972 haul.

It seemed a realistic goal when he won six gold medals at the 2001 World Championships, but Thorpe eventually abandoned his quest to choose another path to swimming immortality.

He has entered the 100 freestyle in Athens and if he can win he will become the first swimmer to win the 100-200-400 treble.

If he fails, he has another chance in four years to become the first man to win the same event at three Olympics after winning the 400 at Sydney and Athens. “I would have loved to see Michael achieve that but it’s not my goal,” Thorpe said. With his fifth Olympic gold medal, Thorpe surpassed athlete Betty Cuthbert and swimmers Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser for the most by an Australian.

Coughlin was relieved to avoid the same fate in the women’s 100m backstroke.

“I got way too excited in the beginning,” said the only woman to ever swim the event in less than one minute. “This is an Olympic final, and I got excited and went out too fast.

“Luckily I was able to keep calm and keep my emotions in check. I’m relieved and happy,” Coughlin said after lifting her first Olympic gold medal in 1:00.37.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry was second in an African record of 1:00.50, while France’s Laure Manaudou clocked 1:00.88 to go with the gold she claimed in the 400m freestyle a day earlier. Manaudou, 17, had become the toast of France when she claimed only her country’s second Olympic swimming gold.

But there was no such joy for Australian teen Leisel Jones, who was again beaten to the prize in the 100m breaststroke by China’s two-time world champion Luo Xuejuan. Luo, 20, led throughout to earn China’s first Olympic swimming gold in eight years. Australian Brooke Hanson took the silver in 1:07.15 and world record-holder Jones was stuck with bronze in 1:07.16. It was an outcome reminiscent of the World Championships in Barcelona last year, when Luo faced down Jones to take her second straight title after the Aussie teen had set a world record in the semifinals. “It was achieved by someone else and we should set our own goals and targets.”

Synchro Divers Win Greece’s First Gold

Hosts nation Greece won their first gold medal of the Athens Olympics when Nikolaos Siranidis and Thomas Bimis triumphed in the men’s synchronized diving three-meter springboard event yester.

German pair Andreas Wels and Tobias Schellenberg took the silver medal and Robert Newbery and Steven Barnett of Australia won the bronze.