It was standing room only in the athletes section of the pool tonight; no one wanted to miss the highly anticipated duel in the pool. Four Olympic gold medallists took to the blocks in the men's 200 freestyle, arguably four of the greatest swimmers around: Ian Thorpe, Pieter van den Hoogenband, Michael Phelps and Grant Hackett. The winner would have some serious bragging rights and quite possibly be billed the top swimmer of the meet. Sure it's not the best event for either Phelps or Hackett, but if there was ever a way to decide who is the best swimmer in the world, this was it.
Pieter, who split a 46.8 on the 4x100 relay last night (a second faster than anyone else in the race) was out first as expected, but Ian came off the 100 wall and looked like his old self. By the time they flipped at the 150 everyone knew the Thorpedo had it. But then came Phelps. Michael split the final 50 in 26.49 and almost caught Pieter and Ian, but ran out of pool. Thorpe's winning time of 1:44.71 was a new Olympic record, but off his personal best.
van den Hoogenband hung in for the silver with a 1:45.23 also off his best, while Phelps swam a new American record for the bronze with a 1:45.32. "It was my second best ever in an Olympic final," said Pieter. "And with all these phenoms around it's quite joyful as well, especially in a field with Grant, Ian, and Michael. To be beaten by one of the best in my sport, well that's the way it is." Michael said, "I did what I wanted to do. I did my best time, and I raced the 2 greatest 200 metre swimmers of all time, so I am happy."
After the awards ceremony, the medallists all received a standing ovation from the swimmers who were certainly impressed by the showdown and great sportsmanship shown by all three men. While the vast majority of journalists then filed out of the stadium to find the stars, there were still 3 Olympic dreams to be realized.
The key to winning the men's and women's 100 back tonight was to be at least a second ahead of the field prior to the Games, thus providing a cushion to protect your win. This strategy worked for both Natalie Coughlin (USA) and Aaron Peirsol (USA). Coughlin who is the world record holder in the 100 back with a 59.59 took it out quick to the 50 and then just held on for the gold. She touched in 1:00.37, almost losing to a fast closing Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) who won her country's first Olympic swimming medal with a personal best of 1:00.50. The 400 free winner from last night, Laure Manaudou (FRA) was third in 1:00.88.
Aaron Peirsol admitted he was a little nervous before his final, but with a few tenths to spare he was able to win his first Olympic gold in the men's 100 back. "It is special to me and I'm very happy to get it, especially for my team," said Peirsol. "It's hard to pick a better moment than this."
Silver went to Markus Rogan (AUT) with a 54.35, just 1/100th ahead of Tomomi Morita (JPN). "I'm really thrilled to win the first medal for Austria in swimming since 1912," said Rogan. "I checked out the other big names in the race and when I realized I was so close, I managed to find more energy for the big finish and it feels great." Peirsol won the race with a 54.06, but only 57 1/100ths separated Peirsol from the 7th place finisher making it one of the closest finals of the Games.
All eyes were focused on Leisel Jones (AUS) in the women's 100 breast. Last summer she broke the world record in the semis of the 100 breast, only to lose the gold and silver to Xuejuan Luo (CHN) and Amanda Beard (USA). After qualifying in first spot last night, she had a lot to prove. While she moved well into the wall, it wasn't enough to catch the outside smoke of Luo who pulled out a 1:06.64 for the gold. But that wasn't all, Leisel was also out touched by her teammate Brooke Hanson (AUS) who swam yet another personal best of 1:07.15 to touch out Jones's 1:07.16.
Three sets of semi-finals were also contested tonight: women's 200 free, men's 200 fly and women's 200 IM. In the 200 free, world champ Alena Popchanka (BLR) missed the final, leaving the way open for Federica Pelligrini (ITA) to post the top swim of 1:58.02. World record holder Franziska van Almsick (GER) also qualified with a 1:59.13.
In the men's 200 fly, Michael Phelps (USA) didn't look a bit tired after his 200 free final and stroked strongly through the first semi-final. He was out well ahead, but did not see Steve Parry (GBR) out in lane 8 who touched first in 1:55.57 to Phelps' 1:55.65. The defending Olympic champ, Tom Malchow (USA) squeaked into the final with a 1:57.48.
The final event of the night was the women's 200 IM. Yana Klochkova (UKR) won the first heat in 2:13.30, holding off a strong Amanda Beard (USA) who didn't look at all tired from her 100 breast just minutes earlier. Beard heads into the final in second with a 2:13.51. In the second semi-final Katie Hoff (USA) touched first with a 2:13.60 and Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) also looked strong after her 100 back silver and was able to swim a 2:13.68.
DAY 3 MONDAY AUGUST 16
FINALS
MEN
MEN
200 METRES FREESTYLE
1 1:44.71 Thorpe Ian,82,AUS
24.81 51.04 1:17.92
2 1:45.23 vdHoogenband Pieter,78,NED
24.44 50.42 1:17.72
3 1:45.32 Phelps Michael,85,USA
25.22 51.70 1:18.83
4 1:46.13 Keller Klete,82,USA
25.52 52.31 1:19.38
5 1:46.56 Hackett Grant,80,AUS
25.41 52.36 1:19.58
6 1:47.55 Say Rick,79,CAN
25.03 52/07 1:19.81
7 1:48.02 Burnett Simon,82,GBR
26.21 53.12 1:20.58
8 1:48.40 Brembilla Emiliano,78,ITA
26.26 53.27 1:21.05
100 METRES BACKSTROKE
1 54.06 Peirsol Aaron,83,USA
2 54.35 Rogan Markus,82,AUT
3 54.36 Morita Tomomi,84,JPN
4 54.38 Krayzelburg Lenny,75,USA
5 54.52 Welsh Matt,76,AUS
6 54.61 Cseh Laszlo,85,HUN
7 54.63 Driesen Steffen,81,GER
8 55.27 di Carli Marco,85,GER
WOMEN
100 METRES BACKSTROKE
1 1:00.37 Coughlin Natalie,82,USA
2 1:00.50 Coventry Kirsty,83,ZIM
3 1:00.88 Manaudou Laure,86,FRA
4 1:01.05 Nakamura Reiko,82,JPN
5 1:01.12 Zhivanevskaya Nina,77,ESP
6 1:01.39 Buschschulte Antje,78,GER
7 1:01.51 Ornstedt Louise,85,DEN
8 1:01.76 Cope Haley,78,USA
100 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1 1:06.64 Luo Xuejuan,84,CHN
2 1:07.15 Hanson Brooke,78,AUS
3 1:07.16 Jones Leisel,85,AUS
4 1:07.44 Beard Amanda,81,USA
5 1:07.53 Poewe Sarah,83,GER
6 1:07.59 Kirk Tara,82,USA
7 1:08.19 Bondarenko Svitlana,71,UKR
disq Qi Hui,85,CHN
SEMI-FINALS
MEN
200 METRES BUTTERFLY
1 1:55.57 Parry Stephen,77,GBR
2 1:55.65 Phelps Michael,85,USA
3 1:56.40 Korzeniowski Pawel,85,POL
4 1:56.69 Yamamoto Takashi,78,JPN
5 1:56.81 Wu Peng,87,CHN
6 1:57.31 Gherghel Ioan,78,ROM
7 1:57.37 Skvortsov Nikolai,84,RUS
8 1:57.48 Malchow Tom,76,USA
9 1:57.58 Poliakov Anatoli,80,RUS
10 1:57.93 Sylantyev Denis,76,UKR
11 1:57.96 Norris Justin,80,AUS
12 1:58.09 Burmester Moss,81,NZL
13 1:58.11 Advena Sergiy,84,UKR
14 1:58.13 Matsuda Takeshi,84,JPN
15 1:59.00 Esposito Franck,71,FRA
16 1:59.78 Veloz Juan,82,MEX
WOMEN
200 METRES FREESTYLE
1 1:58.02 Pellegrini Federica,88,ITA
2 1:58.65 Figues Solenne,79,FRA
3 1:58.68 Pang Jiaying,85,CHN
4 1:59.04 Vollmer Dana,87,USA
5 1:59.10 Barzycka Paulina,86,POL
6 1:59.13 van Almsick Franziska,78,GER
7 1:59.25 Potec Camelia,82,ROM
8 1:59.31 Lillhage Josefine,80,SWE
9 1:59.44 Graham Elka,81,AUS
10 1:59.79 Poll Claudia,72,CRC
11 1:59.87 Popchanka Alena,79,BLR
12 1:59.96 Moravcova Martina,76,SVK
13 2:00.09 Nagai Tomoko,81,JPN
14 2:00.22 Benko Lindsay,76,USA
15 2:00.52 Yang Yu,85,CHN
16 2:01.06 Marshall Melanie,82,GBR
200 METRES IND.MEDLEY
1 2:13.30 Klochkova Yana,82,UKR
2 2:13.51 Beard Amanda,81,USA
3 2:13.60 Hoff Kathryn,89,USA
4 2:13.68 Coventry Kirsty,83,ZIM
5 2:13.80 Carroll Lara,86,AUS
6 2:14.25 Caslaru Beatrice,75,ROM
7 2:14.47 Rohmann Teresa,87,GER
8 2:14.68 Kovacs Agnes,81,HUN
9 2:14.92 Scherba Hanna,82,BLR
10 2:14.95 Mills Alice,86,AUS
11 2:15.43 Melo Joanna,87,BRA
12 2:15.45 Verevka Oxana,77,RUS
13 2:15.73 Bardach Georgina,83,ARG
14 2:15.93 Zhou Yafei,84,CHN
15 2:17.32 Warden Elizabeth,78,CAN
16 2:17.41 Norfolk Helen,81,NZL