ATHENS, Greece - His quest to surpass Mark Spitz out of the way, Michael Phelps got back to winning gold.

The 19-year-old from Baltimore claimed his second and third gold medals of the Athens Games in the 200-meter butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay Tuesday night, though he was a bit disappointed at failing to break his own world record in the butterfly.

Phelps held off Takashi Yamamoto to win the 200 butterfly in an Olympic-record 1 minute, 54.01 seconds. The hard-charging Japanese swimmer took silver (1:54.56), while Great Britain’s Stephen Parry won bronze (1:55.22).

In the 800 relay, Klete Keller narrowly held off Ian Thorpe at the wall to help the United States win gold over the Australians.

The Americans won in 7 minutes, 7.33 seconds — a U.S. record — four years after finishing second to the Aussies at the Sydney Games.

The Australian team of Grant Hackett, Michael Klim, Nicholas Sprenger and Thorpe earned silver in 7:07.46. The Italian team of Emiliano Brembilla, Massimiliano Rosolino, Simone Cercato and Filippo Magnini took bronze in 7:11.83.

“This race will go down as one of the greatest in history,” said Phelps, who helped the Americans avenge the loss to Australia four years ago in Sydney. “I was like, ‘Come on, Klete! Hold on! Hold on!’ I knew Klete would come through. His swim was the reason why we won that relay. He held off the fastest 200 freestyler in history.”

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Phelps and the other U.S. swimmers, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay, hopped up and down on the deck as Keller dug for home. When he touched first — his hand just ahead of Thorpe’s — Phelps showed more emotion than he has at the entire Olympics. The teenager threw up his arms and screamed “Yeaaahh!” toward the jubilant American contingent in the stands.

“I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated like that in my entire life,” Phelps said. “They’ve owned that race for so long.”

Keller pulled himself out of the water and joined his teammates in a raucous hug. A dejected Thorpe walked over and shook hands with Keller.

“It hurt like hell,” Keller said. “I could see (Thorpe) coming up. But when I was breathing, I saw my team going crazy — and that really kept me going.”

A night earlier, the 200 freestyle — a duel between Phelps, Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband — was touted as the most anticipated race of the Olympics. It was the only head-to-head individual race between Phelps and Thorpe, but the American finished a distant third.

For pure drama, it didn’t come close to matching up to this one.

Phelps led off against Aussie star Grant Hackett; Thorpe — adorned in black from head to toe — finished up with his furious pursuit of Keller. It was the second-closest 800 relay in Olympic history, topped only by the Americans’ margin of four-hundredths of a second over West Germany at the 1984 Games. Coincidentally, the U.S. coaches showed their team a tape of that race beforehand, hoping to buttress the importance of finishing strong.

“I tried to put my head down,” Thorpe said. “It was a good last 50 for me and a great one for Klete. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite get there.”

Keller was chosen to swim the anchor leg instead of Phelps, who an hour earlier won his second gold medal of the games in the 200 butterfly. The United States retained Lochte and Vanderkaay for the evening swim from the morning preliminaries, when the Americans had the fastest time.

The Aussies saved Hackett, Klim and Thorpe for the final. Australia holds the world record of 7:04.66, set three years ago.

Halfway through the eight-day swimming meet, Phelps has three gold and two bronze medals. He had hoped to challenge Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals from the 1972 Munich Games, but that effort ended with third-place finishes in the 400 free relay and 200 free.

Thorpe is having another superb Olympics, with three gold medals and one silver.

Phelps went out strong in the fly — one of his best events — and reached the midway point under his world-record pace. He tired a bit at the end, falling short of the 1:53.93 that he set at last year’s world championships.

Phelps turned quickly to look at the scoreboard, giving a timid fist pump when he saw his winning time.

“The third 50 was something that could have been better,” he said. “I’m happy for the gold medal, but I really wanted the record.”

Phelps didn’t have to swim in the morning for the first time, sitting out the preliminaries of the relay.

“I got to sleep in today, so I got a little bit of rest,” he said. “I’ll put all my energy into the relay.”

In the 200 fly, defending Olympic champion Tom Malchow made the final, but wasn’t the same swimmer as four years ago.

Bothered by a torn tendon in his right shoulder, he finished last at 1:57.48 — more than two seconds slower than his winning time in 2000. Still, he fulfilled his role as co-captain of the U.S. men’s team, waiting on deck to congratulate Phelps, the man who took his Olympic title.

The Americans got an even bigger shocker in the morning. Their top sprinters, Jason Lezak and Ian Crocker, both failed to advance out of the preliminaries of the 100 free.

That’s not all: Two-time Olympic champion Alexander Popov of Russia failed to advance from the semifinals.

Crocker was 17th in 49.73 seconds — missing the semis by one-hundredth of a second. He has been sick with a sore throat since the swimming competition began Saturday.

“I’m trying to ignore it,” Crocker said. “I keep telling myself I’m getting better.”

Lezak was worse, finishing 20th with a time of 49.87 seconds — far off his personal best of 48.17, which was the top qualifying time coming into Athens. The 28-year-old from Irvine, Calif., made a costly tactical error.

“I usually go out hard and try to hang on,” he said. “This time, I tried to go out easy and pick it up at the end. But that’s not how I swim. I just couldn’t pick it up.”

This will be the first time the United States doesn’t have at least one swimmer in the 100 free final of a nonboycotted Olympics. The United States has 12 golds, nine silvers and seven bronzes in the sprint event.

American Gary Hall Jr. won silver in 1996 and a bronze four years ago, but he didn’t qualify for the 100 this time. His only individual event is the 50 free.

Popov, who won the 100 at Barcelona and Atlanta and took second at Sydney, missed the final by two-100ths of a second, edged by Thorpe for the last spot. Defending Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband will be back to defend his title, swimming the second-fastest time of the semis behind South African Roland Schoeman.

Swimming - Men's 200-meter Butterfly (medals: Aug. 17th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Michael Phelps United States 1:54.04 OR Silver Takashi Yamamoto Japan 1:54.56 Bronze Stephen Parry Britain 1:55.52 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Swimming - Men's 4x200-meter Freestyle Relay (medals: Aug. 17th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Phelps, Lochte, Vanderkaay, Keller United States 7:07.33 Silver Hackett, Klim, Sprenger, Thorpe Australia 7:07.46 Bronze Brembilla, Rosolino, Cercato, Magnini Italy 7:11:83 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

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