*just got to post this article stolen from nbcolympics.com.*
ATHENS — Michael Phelps’ quest to match Mark Spitz’s mark of seven gold medals in one Olympic Games is over.
But no matter what happens to Phelps in his remaining five events over the next five days at the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre, he can rest easy knowing one thing:
He didn’t duck anybody.
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| Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband |
In the men’s 200m freestyle Monday night, facing a field that included the other three fastest men to ever swim the race, Phelps took the bronze medal, behind Ian Thorpe, who won his fifth career gold medal and first in the 200m free. Thorpe swam an Olympic-record time of 1:44.71.
Pieter van den Hoogenband, the gold medalist at the 2000 Games in Sydney in the 200 free, led until the final turn — but could not hold off Thorpe, who rocketed ahead in the final 25 meters. He finished with the silver.
Dubbed the “Race of the Century” by fans and media from Sydney to Amsterdam to New York, Monday’s race featuring Thorpe, van den Hoogenband, Phelps and Australia’s Grant Hackett lived up to expectations.
Van den Hoogenband, known as “The Flying Dutchman,” came out lightning-fast leading the field for the first three turns. Thorpe was on his tail the entire way until the final turn, when he touched second, but came out of the turn first and never looked back.
Phelps was right behind Thorpe for the entire race and appeared to be tracking down van den Hoogenband in the final 15 meters, but ran out of room in his quest to catch the Dutch swimmer.
Phelps, known as a voracious competitor, did not express dissapointment at his result.
“I wanted to get in and I wanted to race those guys. I was able to do that,” Phelps said. “To be able to race the two fastest Olympic freestylers of all time in an Olympic field was unbelievable.
“It was what I wanted to do and what I hoped to do,” he added.
Although it was a wide-open battle for the gold, Thorpe’s victory wasn’t a shock. Nobody has been close to him since his Sydney loss to van den Hoogenband. The Dutchman set the world record in that swim, but since then, Thorpe swam faster than that Sydney-winning mark nine times including Monday’s performance.
Thorpe still payed homage to his competitors, and indicated his loss in Sydney had stuck with him since.
“Well, now we’re even,” he said told van den Hoogenband after the race. “I meant ti meaning we are even in Beijing. It will be another tough race.”
The Dutchman admitted that Thorpe was the better swimmer in this race, but also that he was not happy with the result.
“As defending Olympic champion, I had to show something,” he said. “I wanted to improve [the world record] but I had given too much in the first 100 meters.”
American Klete Keller finished fourth. Hackett, the former world-record holder in the race with second-fastest time this year coming into Monday, finished fifth.
Even with the bronze-medal performance, Phelps, who broke his American record in a time of 1:45.32, still can make Olympic history at these Games. He could tie Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin’s record of eight medals — of any color — won at a single Games.
“I came in here wanting one [gold],” Phelps said. “I have one, now I’m just having fun.”
