SWIMMING: G'DAY EACH DAY AT SYDNEY SWIMMING'S WEEK-LONG GOLDEN AGE RESULTS IN 15 INDIVIDUAL WORLD RECORDS.

Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - The men's 400-meter freestyle relay established the plot and the men's 400-meter medley relay provided the exclamation point. In between, the swims at these 27th Summer Olympics wrote a story for the ages.

Michael Klim's world-record-setting first leg for the Australian sprint freestyle relay that shattered the world record epitomized a competition that saw 14 world records fall - four more than in the Barcelona and Atlanta Games combined - and a 15th one tied.

The Aussies' victory in a relay the American sprinters had never lost in an Olympic competition put the U.S. swimmers on tactical alert: If they didn't go into battle completely focused, these Games were going to be forgettable.

The U.S. team was able to clear the bar the Aussies had raised, accounting for four of the world records and bettering 15 American records.

On Saturday Chris Thompson felled the domestic mark in the 1500 meters before it had had much time to take root, trimming over two seconds off USC sophomore Erik Vendt's time of 14 minutes, 59.11 seconds from last month's U.S. Olympic Trials.

Thompson, a senior at Michigan, clocked a 14:56.81 to win the bronze medal behind Aussies Grant Hackett (14:48.33) and Kieren Perkins (14:53.59) in the most-inspirational U.S. swim this side of Misty Hyman's 200 butterfly and Tom Dolan's 200 and 400 individual medleys.

Vendt, who took the race out much faster than he did at the Trials in an effort to stay close to the Aussies' dynamic duo, faded to sixth in 15:08.61.

On the final, fabulous day of competition, Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands collected her third gold medal of these Games, in the 50 freestyle. And backstroker Lenny Krayzelburg joined Aussie teenager Ian Thorpe as the only triple gold medalists on the men's side when he led off the U.S.' world-record setting 400 medley relay.

Krayzelburg just missed his 100 backstroke world record of 53.60, but gave the Americans a clear advantage with a split of 53.87. Ed Moses, swimming next, turned in the fastest 100 breaststroke split in history - a 59.84 - to hand Ian Crocker and Gary Hall Jr. a virtually insurmountable lead.

With the relay win, the U.S. padded its advantage in the medals race (or medals war, as an Australian volunteer at the swimming venue referred to it). The Americans finished with 33 medals (14 of them gold) for their most-bountiful haul in a non-boycotted Games since 1976, when the U.S. men went 1-2 in nine events - and 1-2-3 in three - in Montreal.

Australia wound up with 18 medals, five of them gold, which is fair dinkum for a country of 19 million.

USA? So far at these Games it has stood for United Swimmers of America, those 33 medals accounting for 65 percent of the country's total tally through Day 8.

Twenty-three individual world records were broken at the glorious Games of 1976, with American men or East German women accounting for all but one of the marks. These Games were much more democratic, with 18 countries collecting medals and eight countries dividing the golds.

NO CONTEST

The much-talked-about showdown between the United States and Australian swimmers never developed as the Americans again dominated in the pool. The U.S. won 33 of the 97 medals awarded in the Olympic swimming competition. Here's the breakdown between the U.S. and Australia:

U.S. Australia

14 Gold 5

8 Silver 9

11 Bronze 4

33 Total 18

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: B.J. Bedford, Megan Quinn and Jenny Thompson, left to right, cheer U.S. teammate Dara Torres during the final leg of the 400-meter medley relay Saturday.

Eric Draper/Associated Press

Box: NO CONTEST (see text)