Record-Tying Thompson Is Golden at End of Relay

She started singing even though the music never really got started, guided by her teammates in the stands.

They began “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a cappella, and Jenny Thompson brought it home, so to speak.

Certainly, it could have been a metaphor for her career, and it was exactly that Sunday night at the World Swimming Championships. After the first three legs of the women’s 400-meter relay, the United States was in third place, trailing Australia and Germany. Thompson handled the anchor leg and turned in the fastest split time of the night (53.44 seconds) and the United States won its first gold medal of this meet, in 3 minutes, 38.09 seconds.

For Thompson, it was her record 10th medal -- six gold, three silver and one bronze -- at the World Championships, tying the likes of Shirley Babashoff and Kornelia Ender. Finishing second was Germany in 3:38.73. Australia took third in 3:38.83.

“There’s some power that goes over me when I’m doing relays,” said the 30-year-old Thompson, who recorded her fastest relay split. “I don’t know what it is, but I get very excited and [there’s] very much the sense that I can’t let my team down. There’s no option but to win.

“I came off the [last] turn, and I felt this rush of adrenaline. There’s no option but for me to keep getting faster and faster and faster. I didn’t see anyone around me. I was very focused and very excited because I knew we would win.”

Uncertainty didn’t hit until Thompson and her teammates, Natalie Coughlin, Lindsay Benko and Rhi Jeffrey were on the medal stand at Palau Sant Jordi, and either someone or something malfunctioned and the national anthem never played. The large contingent of American swimmers in the stands started singing and gold medalists joined in. Meet organizers apologized and offered to have another ceremony, according to team officials. But the newest gold medalists weren’t offended, saying they had fun singing.

It was a rough opening night with the sound system. During the medal ceremony for the men’s 400 freestyle, won by Ian Thorpe in 3:42.58, the music cut out after only the first verse of Advance Australia Fair. Thorpe, who made history by winning his third gold in the 400 at the World Championships, kept singing and stopped when he realized the music ended, smiling to himself.

“There are a lot of expectations here for me to win medals or to break world records, but my swimming career, that’s not what I’ve been about,” said Thorpe, whose countryman Grant Hackett finished second in 3:45.17. “It’s all about gaining self-satisfaction from my achievements and what I do in the pool. This isn’t about medals I win or about world records I can break.”

Which is why his disappointment -- though still evident -- was tempered by Australia’s failure to win a medal in the 400 freestyle relay. Australia, the gold medalists in that event at the 2000 Olympics, took fourth behind Russia, the United States and France.

Thorpe can do a lot of things, but there was no way he could recover from a deficit against the likes of Russia’s Alexander Popov and American Jason Lezak. It was an emotional night for the 31-year-old Popov, who dedicated the race to the coach of his relay teammates.

Despite all of his individual accomplishments, Popov had never won a gold medal in a relay at this level. It was clear this was special for the Russian star, who now lives in Switzerland.

“It’s a very philosophical question,” he said. “I’ve been dreaming about this for 11, 12 years since ‘92,” he said from the news conference podium, as he signed autographs for the bronze medalist swimmers from France.

In the other final, Hannah Stockbauer of Germany won the 400 freestyle in 4:06.75. American Diana Munz was third in 4:07.67, a personal best.

Still, the day seemed to belong to the thirty-somethings -- Thompson and Popov. Thompson laughed when that was pointed out to her.

She turned in the fastest qualifying time in the 100 butterfly in the semifinals of 57.99, breaking her own meet record mark of 58.14, set in the morning heats. Coughlin qualified sixth in 58.97.

The plan, for Thompson, is to proceed full speed ahead for the 2004 Olympics. That is, in her own “multi-dimensional” way.

She will be starting her third year of medical school at Columbia University in August and will continue through Christmas before stopping to turn her full attention to the Olympics.