As happens so often with hyperbole, American dark horse hopeful Michael Phelps fell short of expectations in the so-called “race of the century” – 0.61 seconds short, to be precise.

With a talented field including four world record holders, yesterday’s men’s 200 freestyle final was the most anticipated and obsessively hyped race of these Olympic Games. In the end, however, it played out according to expectations, with Australia’s Ian Thorpe winning gold in an Olympic record time of 1:44.71.

Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, who beat Thorpe in this event in the 2000 games, won silver with a time of 1:45.23, and Phelps claimed his second bronze of the Athens Games, .09 seconds behind.

For all three finishers, it was a race contested on neutral ground. Thorpe is a long-distance swimmer more comfortable over 400 meters; van den Hoogenband is a sprinter better suited to the 100, and Phelps’s strength is the individual medley.

True to form, van den Hoogenband started out in a flurry, setting a world-record pace and leading the field by half a body length after 100 meters. But with a monster turn on the final wall, Thorpe pulled even through the last 50 as van den Hoogenband lost steam.

Swimming his loping freestyle, Phelps trailed both swimmers for the entire race, but nearly caught a fading van den Hoogenband at the wall. He was gaining on Thorpe as well, but too late to sustain his hopes of equaling Mark Spitz’s Olympics record of seven gold medals.

Coming into these games, the deafening noise around Phelps’s quest to break Spitz’s record called into question Thorpe’s status as the world’s premier swimmer. But with this gold medal added to Sunday’s gold in the 400 freestyle, Thorpe’s reputation seems secure. Phelps may yet win more medals, even more gold medals than Thorpe, but the two will not face each other again in a head-to-head competition, leaving Thorpe with bragging rights.

Phelps, whose time yesterday was nonetheless his personal best in the 200 freestyle, said he wasn’t upset with the third-place finish.

“How can I be disappointed? I swam in a field with two of the fastest freestylers of all time, and I was right there with them,” the 19-year-old told The Associated Press.

Overshadowed by the deflating Phelps’s myth, American backstroke favorites Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol both won gold in the 100-meter distance, swimming times of 1:00.37 and 54.06 respectively.

Coughlin put distance between herself and the competition with deep undulating dolphin kicks off the walls, staying under water some five meters longer than the rest of the field. Having won by a narrow margin of .13 seconds, a relieved Coughlin told NBC, “if I would have won that by .01 of a second I wouldn’t have cared.”

The men’s 100 backstroke was billed as a race between teacher and pupil, but became an official passing of the torch. Defending Olympic champion Lenny Krayzelburg finished a disappointing fourth, .32 seconds behind Peirsol, but only.02 seconds behind bronze medalist Tomomi Morita and .03 behind Markus Rogan.

Phelps heads back into more familiar territory tonight with the final of the 200 butterfly, and American men try to recover their relay form in the 4 x 200 freestyle.