By Paul Newberry
The Associated Press

ATHENS - The record stood for 17 years, a despised symbol of a cold-hearted regime that systematically drugged its athletes in the pursuit of Olympic glory.

Finally, it's off the books.

The American women completed a sweep of the 800-meter freestyle relays with a dominating performance at the Olympic pool Wednesday night, taking down the oldest - and most tarnished - world record in swimming.

The Americans won in 7 minutes, 53.42 seconds, easily beating the mark of 7:55.47 set exactly 17 years earlier by East Germany.

"It burned people a lot, and we all know the reason why," U.S. women's coach Mark Schubert said of the previous mark. "We're very proud to have that record back."

The East Germans set the relay record on Aug. 18, 1987. Two years later, the Berlin Wall came down and communism collapsed, bringing to light evidence of massive cheating by a country that viewed athletic success as a validation of its oppressive way of life.

Even those left in the Americans' wake Wednesday were glad to see East Germany's mark wiped out.

"It was a pretty old one and perhaps a little bit tainted," Australia's Petria Thomas said. "It's great it's been broken."

Natalie Coughlin led off for the Americans, swimming a faster time than the gold-medal performance in the 200 free. Carly Piper took over next, followed by Dana Vollmer and Kaitlin Sandeno, who didn't look the least bit tired after finishing fourth in the 200 butterfly just 45 minutes earlier.

"We're tough chicks," Sandeno said, adding there's nothing tainted about this record. "We're clean as we can be."

The victory came 24 hours after a thrilling U.S. victory in the men's 800 free relay in which Klete Keller held off a hard-charging Ian Thorpe to win gold over Australia by 13-hundredths of a second.

Clearly inspired by that performance, the American women blew away everyone. China, more than 2 1/2 seconds behind, took the silver, while Germany edged Australia for the bronze by just five-hundredths of a second.

The Americans remained perfect in the women's 800 free relay, winning their third straight Olympic title. The race became part of the Olympic program at the 1996 Atlanta Games.