ATHENS, 18 August 2004 — The United States, led by Michael Phelps, dethroned Australia in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the Athens Olympics yesterday, and not even Ian Thorpe could prevent the upset. The triumph, in an American record of 7min 07.33sec, gave Phelps his second gold medal of the night, and gave the United States a golden ending to what had started out as a bad day in the competition pool.
“Australia had owned that event,” said Phelps, who teamed with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay and Klete Keller. “As a goal, I wanted to come in here and prove something. This will go down as one of the greatest races in history,” Phelps said.
He got the Americans off to a flying start, but it was anchor swimmer Keller who held off Thorpe — just a day after the mighty Australian underscored his hold on the event by winning the individual 200m free title.
“I’m not making excuses, but I feel a bit flat tonight,” said Thorpe, who had been masterful on Monday night in beating Pieter van den Hoogenband and Phelps in the intense individual race. “I’m pretty disappointed with that. I was trying not to rush it, to catch up. I didn’t want to throw myself at the first hundred meters.”
The Aussie squad of Grant Hackett, Michael Klim, Nicholas Sprenger and Thorpe settled for silver in 7:07.46. The world record-holders had claimed three world titles since 1998 as well as the 2000 Olympic gold in the event. “It hurt desperately,” Hackett said of the defeat. Italy, second when Thorpe hit the water, took third in 7:11.83.
When it became clear that Keller would not fall prey to one of Thorpe’s patented last-lap pushes, Phelps and his teammates began jumping and yelling on the deck. It was a marked contrast to the close of the morning’s preliminaries, in which the United States failed to advance a swimmer from the heats of the men’s 100m free.
It marks the first time the Americans won’t have a representative in the prestigious 100m free final at the Olympics, apart from boycott years.
“It was a lot more fun tonight,” said US men’s head coach Eddie Reese.
Phelps, his chance at an historic haul of seven gold medals over, returned to his Olympic roots for his first gold medal of the night. He won the 200m butterfly — in which he finished fifth as a 15-year-old in Sydney — to go with his 400m medley gold and to two bronzes amassed by the halfway stage of the eight-day competition.
“The first 50 was something that could have been better,” said Phelps, who had wanted to better his own world record. “I’m happy with the gold medal. But I really wanted the record.”
Phelps went for it, but had to settle for an Olympic record of 1min 54.04sec.
He might have been a touch dissatisfied, but the victory was never in doubt. Japan’s Takashi Yamamoto took silver more than half a second behind in 1:54.56, while Stephen Parry earned the bronze in 1:55.52, giving Britain its first Olympic swimming medal since Graeme Smith’s 1,500m free bronze in 1996.
Yamamoto was third at every turn before a last-lap surge saw him take the silver in an Asian record of 1:54.56. “I really wanted to beat Michael Phelps,” Yamamoto said. “But he’s just too fast.”
In the women’s finals, it was more of the same for Jana Klochkova and Franziska van Almsick — more medley glory for Ukraine’s Klochkova and more Olympic heartbreak for Germany’s van Almsick.
Van Almsick acknowledged that her long campaign for an Olympic gold had ended in vain after European champion Camelia Potec of Romania stormed to victory in the women’s 200m freestyle.
Potec took gold ahead of Italian teenager Federica Pellegrini and Solenne Figues of France. Van Almsick finished fifth, unable to finally add a gold to the eight medals she has earned in three previous Olympic Games campaigns. She led at the halfway stage, but couldn’t hold on. “This is my last Olympics and probably my last swim,” van Almsick said. “It’s very emotional for me, but I have other things in my life now.”
Klochkova added the 200m medley gold to her 400IM title, repeating her sweep of the Sydney Games. Since 2000, she has lost just one medley final in Olympic, world and European championship competition.
US 15-year-old Katie Hoff battled gamely, but veteran Amanda Beard rode her specialty breaststroke to the silver with Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry taking the bronze to go with her 100m backstroke silver.
