Thorpe targets Spitz's record

Ian Thorpe today stood acclaimed as the most golden Australian Olympian of them all and was being saluted by his opponents as something more - the perfect swimmer.

After prevailing in the 200 metres freestyle 'race of the century' from Holland's Pieter van den Hoogenband and American Michael Phelps, his two pursuers, themselves among the finest performers of their era, sounded like awed courtiers as they acknowledged that the Sydney man is the greatest. At just 21.

Today, Thorpe, who has now become the first Australian to win five Olympic gold medals in any sport, was setting out to make yet more historic waves by adding the 100m freestyle crown to the 400m gold he won on Saturday and the 200m title he landed last night. Nobody has ever lifted this freestyle triple crown in the history of the Games and Thorpe may find van den Hoogenband's sheer speed in the blue riband event too much to cope with. Yet he still looked poised to cruise into tonight's semis and then tomorrow's final. The aura which surrounds him these days is surely being worth a few fractions of a second.

"He is one of the best middle distance freestylers in history - if not the best. Over the past four years, he has carried himself as one of the great sportsmen," said Phelps, whose disappointment in failing to emulate Mark Spitz's seven golds in one Games seemed to be softened by the fact that it should be the Aussie who ended the adventure. "He has the perfect stroke. It's unbelievable how he manages to move through the water. When he was swimming in the next lane alongside me in the semi-final, I said to my coach 'wow, he makes some big waves'.

"I was getting hammered by them. So even though I swam the fastest race I could, I couldn't match him.

"Seeing how he handles himself too, how he stays so relaxed in a country where swimming gets so much more attention than in the US and where he's always under the spotlight is something I can learn from."