OVERTURNED, OVERJOYED PEIRSOL DISQUALIFIED AFTER VICTORY, GETS GOLD MEDAL BACK ON APPEAL.

Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer

ATHENS, Greece - It was improbable, perplexing, convoluted, a tad suspicious and completely stunning.

U.S. swimming finally discovered a way to overshadow another gold-medal performance by the remarkable Michael Phelps Thursday night at the Olympic Aquatic Center.

All it took was for American Aaron Peirsol to complete a sweep of the backstroke events with a dominating victory in the 200 only to walk away from the pool and learn he had been disqualified.

``We were kind of waiting for 'Just Kidding' to come up on the scoreboard,'' said U.S. coach Eddie Reese.

After 20 minutes, the disqualification was overturned and Peirsol was given back his first-place finish, although the reasons for reinstating Peirsol were as confusing as the disqualification.

``It's pretty strange,'' Peirsol said. ``It's one of those things you want to say never happened, but it did. It makes for a good story, though.''

The return of Peirsol's gold left the U.S. with its most impressive day yet at the Olympic pool. The U.S. won five medals on the night - three gold, a silver and a bronze.

In addition to Peirsol, and Phelps' victory in the 200 individual medley, Amanda Beard took gold in the 200 breaststroke. All three victories came in Olympic record time. Ryan Lochte took a surprising silver behind Phelps and Natalie Coughlin took the bronze in the 100 freestyle.

It was Coughlin's fourth medal of the meet, but the sixth for Phelps, including four gold.

``I'm having so much fun,'' Phelps said.

Phelps has two events left and now is favored to tie Alexandr Dityatin of the USSR for most medals won in a single Summer Games.

``I can't get away from numbers,'' Phelps said.

Peirsol was struggling to get away from the controversy surrounding his otherwise commanding victory in the 200 backstroke. He won by four strokes and 2.4 seconds over Austrian Markus Rogan.

Anyway, that's the way it initially appeared at the end of the race. Until the swimmers were leaving the pool and the disqualification was flashed on the scoreboard.

Peirsol, who hasn't lost a race in almost four years, looked up in astonishment.

``It sounds pretty bogus, man,'' Peirsol said, walking past reporters. ``I don't know what I did.''

He wondered if he had been disqualified for crossing the lane line before the others finished.

Peirsol, of course, is the swimmer who criticized the officials for failing to spot an illegal dolphin kick by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima in the 100 breaststroke.

It looked suspiciously like payback time when an unnamed official ruled Peirsol used an illegal final turn.

``We wondered about that also,'' Reese said. ``There's no way to know that.''

Peirsol said he didn't believe it was personal, but for 20 minutes he wasn't sure what to think.

The U.S. filed a protest and it was upheld, sort of.

FINA, the governing body for swimming issued the following statement in overturning the disqualification:

``The DSQ of the swimmer in lane four, Peirson Aaron (USA), was not accepted due to the detail of the reason supplied by the official being inadequate and not in the working language of FINA.''

Whether the reason was simply inadequate or there was a translation problem was uncertain (FINA's official languages are French and English) but Peirsol had his medal back and soon was on the podium to receive it.

``It was weird, it was frustrating, it was interesting,'' Peirsol said. ``But it was OK.

``I feel more for the other guys in the field than for me. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong.''

Rogan, a Stanford swimmer and friend of Peirsol, was moved back to second place, Romania's Razvan Florea to the bronze and Britain's James Goddard off the podium.

``I'm happy with the silver medal,'' Rogan said. ``For a moment I thought about gold and the idea was just beautiful, but after all, it's fair like this.''

That didn't prevent Austria and Britain from filing a protest over the approved U.S. protest. About 2 hours after the race ended, FINA disallowed the Austrian-Britain protest.

``No matter what, I was going to be happy because I knew, and the guys knew, I won,'' Peirsol said. ``I just hope it's not tarnished.''

Peirsol, 21, became only the fifth swimmer in Olympic history to win both backstroke events. Studio City's Lenny Krayzelburg pulled the double in Sydney in 2000.

Steve Dilbeck, [phone]

stephen.dilbeck(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) American Aaron Peirsol reacts in disbelief when he's disqualified for an illegal turn after winning in the men's 200 backstroke. His gold-medal finish was reinstated after an appeal.

Kay Nietfeld/EPA

(2 -- color) Aaron Peirsol is all smiles after a roller-coaster ride to the top of the podium Thursday.

(3) Amanda Beard of the U.S. reacts after winning the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press