ALTER EGOS IS THERE A THOMPSON-TORRES RIVALRY? NOT REALLY.

Byline: Karen Crouse

INDIANAPOLIS - Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson exchanged first-place finishes and American records Wednesday in the 100-meter butterfly, but not one meaningful glance.

This news flash went along press row at the Indiana University Natatorium during the opening day of the U.S. Olympic Trials with all the seriousness of an Eric Sevareid report.

Torres and Thompson, teammates at Stanford, have a relationship as complicated as Bill and Hillary's. They haven't trained together since December, a break that coincided with Torres' torrid rise from retiree to record holder.

Torres trimmed 0.3 seconds off Thompson's American record in the morning heats with a 57.58 clocking, and Thompson prevailed in the evening's semifinals with a 57.59, setting the stage for a final today that promises to be everything Maurice and Michael's 200 meters at last month's U.S. Track and Field Trials was not.

Even before Torres and Thompson's tit-for-tat times, the interplay between the two sprinters took center stage.

A few reporters, smelling bad blood in the water, have circled the swimmers and sunk their teeth into the rival angle. Thompson and Torres have tried to wiggle free, with little success. It has bordered on the absurd, watching journalists who are so competitive they won't share quotes turn around and ask why Thompson and Torres aren't splitting a lane in the pool.

Of course, Thompson and Torres have egos, but those aren't what have clashed. Thompson didn't banish Torres from the group. It was more of a personality scrap.

We gleaned from more than one member of the team that the Stanford women, who are tighter than their bodysuits, collectively voted Torres off their watery oasis because her high-maintenance personality was upsetting their delicate ego-logical balance.

They decided if Torres wanted the coaching staff to herself, the least they could do was accommodate her. That's why Torres has been training on her own for the past eight months under Richard Quick's supervision. Torres, 33, worked as a model and a broadcaster during her time away from the sport so she's obviously comfortable with the personal attention.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The sports world is a sanctum for the self-absorbed. And if you think about it, only someone with a highly evolved hubris would commit to a comeback after seven years off.

It takes a healthy selmage to attempt the seemingly unimaginable. Torres is what she is and that goes a long way toward explaining why she's on the verge of becoming the first American swimmer, male or female, to participate in four Olympics.

A first or second-place finish in the 100 butterfly final today and Torres is on her way to Sydney.

A first or second-place finish would place Thompson on her third Olympic team and afford her the opportunity to become the most decorated U.S. female Olympian.

She is U.S. Swimming's heirloom, having graced the national team for the past 14 years - more than half her life. The 27-year-old's longevity in the sport rivals Darrell Green's in football or Carl Lewis's in track and field. Her Olympic gold medal collection (five, all in relays) has been equaled in this country only by speedskater Bonnie Blair. And yet Thompson's public profile never has quite caught up to her stature.

It doesn't make sense, but it's easily explained: Thompson doesn't court the spotlight. If it comes, she'll happily take a bow. But she doesn't need a milk mustache or a magazine cover or a deferential press to complete her.

One of her friends on the Stanford team said, ``I think Jenny would like to have more of the attention. She's a wonderful person and deserves it, absolutely. But she's not going to change who she is to get it.''

Thompson's personality indulges thoughtfulness and loyalty and fun but has no use for preening and posturing. She immersed herself in swimming not so others would someday feel good about her but because it made her feel good about herself.

Whatever happens today and the rest of the meet, Thompson already has her next challenge in sight; next August she will enroll at the Columbia University Medical School to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a doctor.

Asked what kind, she replied drolly, ``A good one, I hope.''

Some wounds are hard to heal. Thompson's closest friends occasionally wish she had grown a thicker coat of conceit so life's arrows would bounce harmlessly off her.

At a meet in Irvine in June, Thompson was walking with the slumped posture of a question mark. Dutch sprinter Inge de Bruijn was in the midst of a world-record spree - she has broken eight world records since May, including Thompson's 100 fly mark - that appeared to be shooting holes in Thompson's confidence.

Later in the month, Thompson came down with an intestinal virus and had to pull out of a meet in Santa Clara. In her absence, Torres set an American record in the 50 free, one of their four head-to-head races.

Missing that meet, in her own backyard, ``was devastating to me,'' Thompson said. ``I had questions, like `Where am I in my season?' I don't think it was that big a deal in hindsight, but it seemed like it at the time.''

Who knew L.A. was just what Thompson needed? She came to the Janet Evans Invitational at USC in mid-July swimming in self-doubts and left as the all-time fastest U.S. performer in the women's 100 freestyle. Her American-record clocking of 54.27 was a 0.21-second improvement over her 1992 Trials effort.

``The L.A. meet was really great for me,'' Thompson said, ``just (in terms of) how I was feeling about my swimming.''

That's all that should matter. How Thompson and Torres feel about each other is really beside the point.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Jenny Thompson has spent more than half of her life on swimming's main stage. She's one race away from her third Olympics.

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Dara Torres celebrates her American record in a 100-meter butterfly preliminary heat.

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

(3) Although Jenny Thompson has won five Olympic medals, all of them have been on relays. Now she's trying for an individual medal.

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press