Ian Thorpe won gold in the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics, while Michael Phelps took bronze. Thorpe finished in 1:44.71, ahead of the Netherlands’ Pieter van den Hoogenband in 1:45.23 and Phelps in 1:45.32.
The final was marketed as the “Race of the Century” because it brought together several elite freestyle swimmers. Thorpe was Australia’s world-record holder, van den Hoogenband was the defending Olympic champion, and Phelps was already a rising American star.
Thorpe’s victory was his second gold medal in Athens; he had also won the 400-meter freestyle. Phelps’s bronze was significant even though it was not gold: it came in an American record and was his first medal of the Games. He later won six golds and two bronzes in Athens.