ATHENS, Greece – Michael Phelps swam the race of his life – then topped himself again.

Capping a magnificent Olympics with a magnanimous gesture, Phelps matched Mark Spitz’s record of four individual swimming gold medals and then gave up a coveted spot on the 400-meter medley relay team to Portland’s Ian Crocker – the man Phelps had just beaten.

With five golds and seven medals overall, Phelps is content to win a historic eighth medal while sitting in the stands Saturday night.

His Olympics are over.

“We came into this meet as a team,” Phelps said. “We’ll leave here as a team.”

In an Olympics that became his personal showcase, the 19-year-old from Baltimore came through with another stirring performance in the 100 butterfly. He had every reason to be tired, racing for the 17th time in seven days. And he was taking on Crocker – the world record-holder, the guy who beat Phelps at both the world championships and the U.S. Olympic trials.

“I’m speechless,” said Crocker, looking to redeem himself after his poor performance last Sunday. “It’s a huge gift but difficult to accept. It makes me want to just go out there and tear up the pool tomorrow.”

Midway through Friday’s race, it seemed as though Phelps had met his match. Crocker led his teammate by a half-body length, making the turn under world-record pace. Phelps was lagging in fifth, his quest for another gold in serious jeopardy.

But Phelps’ huge wingspan began to dig furiously into the water, leaving behind a wake that resembled a washing machine cleaning a load of clothes. With 20 meters to go, he had pulled up on Crocker’s shoulder. At the wall, both men lunged for the gold.

Phelps got it, beating Crocker by a minuscule four-hundredths of a second in an Olympic record of 51.25. Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine took the bronze with a time of 51.36.

“He’s a great champion,” said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who watched Phelps’ victory from a front-row seat at the Aquatic Center. “Definitely, he is going to be one of the icons of the games.”

Normally, the winner of the 100 fly gets a spot in the medley relay final. But Phelps, who already had taken part in the morning preliminaries, decided to give his spot to Crocker. Everyone who participates on a top-three relay team – whether it’s the preliminaries or a final – receives a medal.

The United States has never lost a medley relay at the Olympics, and this American team will be an overwhelming favorite to keep that streak alive – no matter if it’s Crocker instead of Phelps swimming the fly.

Therefore, Phelps still is likely to tie Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin’s record of eight medals in one Olympics, accomplished at the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.

While saying he feels Crocker is a better relay swimmer, Phelps’ main concern was Crocker’s poor performance in the 400 freestyle relay last Sunday. A dismal opening leg put the Americans in a hole, and they settled for bronze.

“It’s tough to give up the relay. It really is,” Phelps said. “But Ian is one of the greatest relay swimmers in the world. He wasn’t feeling well during the 400 relay. Hopefully, he’ll step up big in the medley relay.”

Phelps probably also was sensitive to the teammates who have been overshadowed by his amazing accomplishments leading up to the Athens Games.

“It’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Crocker beat Phelps at the 2003 world championships, where he became the first man to swim the fly in under 51 seconds, and again at the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this summer. Crocker swam the fly in a world-record 50.76 at trials.

Crocker was a member of the gold-medal medley relay team at the Sydney Games in 2000. He finished fourth in the 100 fly in those Olympics.

He was a surprise to qualify for the Olympics that year and struggled early in the trials. But in the 100 fly prelims, Crocker swam six one-hundreths of a second short of the American record. In the final, he was two one-hundreths of a second off the record but won the race and earned his berth on the team.

Crocker, a 2000 graduate of Cheverus High in Portland, Maine, recently completed a stellar college career at the University of Texas, where he was a 10-time NCAA champion and 22-time NCAA All-American.

He won the 100 butterfly (short-course) national title all four years at Texas, joining Mark Spitz and Pablo Morales as the only males to ever win that event four years in row at the NCAA Championships.

Crocker was a member of two NCAA national championship teams. In March he set a world record in the 100-meter freestyle (short course) at the NCAA championships.

The first Olympic swimmer from Maine, Crocker grew up training at Reiche Pool, a four-lane, 25-yard pool in Portland. He also competed for Pine Tree Swim Club in Portland and later for the Portland Porpoises.

Spitz was in the stands to watch Phelps’ final race in Athens. As the teenager walked around the deck with his latest gold medal, he spotted Spitz holding up four fingers.

“What he did was an amazing accomplishment,” Phelps said. “Just to be mentioned in the same sentence with him is unbelievable.”

In all, Spitz won a record seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games. Phelps will fall short of that record, but this performance – in a swimming world that is much more competitive than it was three decades ago – could very well be more impressive than the one he was chasing.