Finishing touches
ATHENS — Turns out the United States didn’t need Michael Phelps to win the men’s 400-meter medley relay.
Or to break the world record at the Athens Olympic Games.
With Phelps ceding his butterfly position to Ian Crocker, Team USA got the gold and the record Saturday, the last night of swimming at Athens.
Phelps, having swum in preliminaries, shared the spoils with his eighth medal of the Games, his sixth gold. Eight medals in one Olympics ties the record set in 1980 by Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin.
The U.S. finished in 3 minutes, 30.68 seconds, smashing the American world mark of 3:31.54 set at last year’s World Championships. Germany finished second in 3:33.62, with Japan third in 3:35.22.
In other big developments on Saturday:
“In track, Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus laid claim to title of fastest woman in the world, sprinting to the 100-meter gold ahead of Lauryn Williams.
“And the U.S. men’s basketball team lost for the second time at Athens, 94-90 to Lithuania. The Americans had lost only twice in 68 years of Olympics until 2004.
Phelps watched as Aaron Piersol led off in the backstroke, 26-hundredths of a second ahead of record pace. Brendan Hansen, in the breaststroke, made it an even half-second ahead of pace.
Crocker took the Americans 61-hundredths under, and Jason Lezak brought it home in the freestyle. The U.S. has won the event in every Olympics since the 1980 boycott of Moscow.
“It is the last race of the Olympics and we won it with a world record,” Hansen said. “People will always remember that.”
Australia’s women set a world record in the medley relay, rallying to beat the United States, 3:57.32 to 3:59.12. Germany took the bronze.
Natalie Coughlin led off for the Americans, followed by Amanda Beard.
Petria Thompson surged past Jenny Thompson on the butterfly, and Jodie Henry pulled away from Kara Lynn Joyce on the anchor leg.
Thompson’s 12th career medal — and 10th on a relay — makes her the most decorated American Olympian of all time. With eight gold, three silver and a bronze, she broke out of a tie with swimmers Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, and shooter Carl Osburn.
Earlier, Thompson fnished seventh in the 50-meter freestyle. The Netherlands’ Inge de Bruijn defended her title in 24.58 seconds. Malia Metella of France earned silver and Lisbeth Lenton of Australia the bronze. Joyce placed fifth.
Australia’s Grant Hackett repeated as champ in the men’s 1,500 freestyle, in Olympic-record 14:43.30. Larsen Jensen of the United States was runner-up in 14:45.29. David Davies of Great Britain took bronze.
Track sprinter Nesterenko left the blocks fifth, but quickly reeled everyone in to win in 10.93. Williams, the NCAA champion out of Miami, ran a personal-best 10.96 for silver. Veronica Campbell, a University of Arkansas senior from Jamaica, came next in 10.97.
LaTasha Colander of the United States finished last in the eight-woman finals. Two-time Olympic champion Gail Devers was eliminated in the semifinals. Also missing out were the favorite, Christine Arron of France, and seven-time Olympian Merlene Ottey, the Jamaican who now competes for Slovenia.
Other winners included world champion Carolina Kluft of Sweden in the heptathlon (6,952 points) and Natalya Sadova of Russia in the discus (219 feet, 10 inches).
Three American men won semifinal heats of the 100, led by Shawn Crawford in 9.89. Defending champion Maurice Greene punched in at 9.93, Justin Gatlin in 9.96. Also breaking 10 seconds were Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell.
Among those ousted were Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks, Britain’s Darren Campbell and Ato Bolden, the 2000 silver medalist from Trinidad and Tobago.
Stacy Dragila, defending champion in the women’s pole vault, missed three attempts at 14 feet, 5 1/4 inches and did not advance.
The maximum three Americans each advanced in the men’s and women’s 400, as well as the women’s 400 hurdles.
Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 28 points as Lithuania shot down the U.S. basketball men. He hit three consecutive 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter, converting a four-point play that put his team ahead to stay. Team USA, which got 20 points from Richard Jefferson, can gain a quarterfinal berth by winning Monday against Angola.
In sailing, Americans Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham edged Britons Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield for the men’s 470 gold.
Meanwhile, what would the Games be without controversies? The latest:
“The International Gymnastics Federation, acting on a South Korean protest of Wednesday’s finals in the men’s all-around, suspended three judges for a scoring error.
By marking South Korea’s Yang Tae-young with a 9.9 start value for his parallel bars routine, rather than 10.0, the judges cost him a tenth of a point. That dropped him from first place to third. But the results will stand, so Paul Hamm of the United States will keep the gold.
“Medals changed in Wednesday’s Three-Day Event. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of revised 1-2-3 finishers France, Britain and the United States, who filed a joint appeal to take the gold from Germany.
The court agreed that, during stadium jumping, Bettina Hoy crossed the starting line twice and that Germany should lose 14 points. That dropped them to fourth. But Germany won Saturday in team dressage, ahead of Spain and the U.S.