American superstar Michael Phelps has become the greatest Olympian of all time, winning two gold medals in the space of an hour in Beijing to take his career total to a phenomenal and unprecedented eleven on his journey to Olympic immortality.
Phelps flogged the field in the 200m butterfly final, then led the US 4x200m freestyle relay team to a comfortable victory to collect his fifth gold medal – all of them in world record time – to go with the six gold nuggets he won in Athens.
Phelps is confident of beating Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in one Games after today’s historic feat of surpassing compatriots Spitz and Carl Lewis, as well as Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, who have all won a total of nine Olympic gold medals.
“From now on it’s just a downward slope. The end is close,” he said ahead of his three remaining events – the 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay.
Phelps said his goggles filled with water during his emphatic 200m butterfly final triumph as he clocked 1 minute 52.03 seconds, just 0.06 under the previous record he set last year.
“It just kept getting worse and worse … and I was having trouble seeing the walls to be honest. I wanted to go 1:51 or better but for the circumstances, I guess it’s not too bad,” he said.
Phelps, 23, set a blistering pace of 1 minute, 43.31 seconds in the 4x200m freestyle relay that got the Americans rolling toward a winning time of 6:58.56 to become the first team ever to break the 7-minute barrier.
“Come on! Come on!” he screamed at teammates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay.
The previous record of 7:03.24 was set by the Americans at last year’s world championships. Russia took the silver, more than five seconds behind the Americans, while Australia won the bronze.
“He is just another person, but maybe from a different planet,” said Alexander Sukhorukov, who swam the anchor leg for the second-place Russians.
Grant Hackett rebounded from Olympic disappointment in the 400m freestyle to help guide Australia to an unlikely third place.
Hackett joined Patrick Murphy, Grant Brits and Nick Ffrost in claiming bronze in a time of 7 minutes 04.98 seconds after a bold selection gamble.
The Australians omitted 200m individual swimmers Kenrick Monk and Nic Sprenger for Brits and Ffrost, with head coach Alan Thompson describing the decision as “probably one of the hardest” he has made since becoming head coach in 2005.
“We had to go with the team that we thought would give us the best result,” he said.
“I feel great about winning the bronze medal but I don’t feel better about having to make those hard decisions.”
Anchor Ffrost staved off Italian 100m world champion Filippo Magnini under immense pressure.
“Coming into the team as seventh (fastest from trials) I felt a little unworthy,” said Ffrost.
“But we now feel we’ve earned our place. We definitely feel worthy.
“To be part of this and to win a bronze medal at the Olympics is a dream come true.”
It was Australia’s third relay bronze medal of the meet – after the men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle efforts – and kept alive the Dolphins’ goal of medaling in each of the six relays in Beijing.
“Bronze is the new gold,” added Brits.
Factfile on US swimmer Michael Phelps, who Wednesday became the most successful Olympian of all time with his 10th and 11th career gold medals:
Michael Phelps
Nationality: USA
Date of birth: 30/06/1985
Place of birth: Baltimore
Height: 1.92 m
Weight: 88 kg
Sport/discipline: Swimming/freestyle, butterfly, individual medley
Contesting eight events at the 2008 Games
Honors:
Olympic Games
200 m freestyle: 1st (2008), 3rd (2004)
100 m butterfly: 1st (2004)
200 m butterfly: 1st (2004, 2008)
200 m individual medley: 1st (2004)
400 m individual medley: 1st (2004, 2008)
4×100 m freestyle relay: 1st (2008), 3rd (2004)
4×100 m medley relay: 1st (2004) – (swam in heats)
4×200 m freestyle relay: 1st (2004, 2008)
World championships
200 m freestyle: 1st (2005, 2007)
100 m butterfly: 1st (2007), 2nd (2003, 2005)
200 m butterfly: 1st (2001, 2003, 2007)
200 m individual medley: 1st (2003, 2005, 2007)
400 m individual medley: 1st (2003, 2007)
4×100 m freestyle relay: 1st (2005, 2007)
4×200 m freestyle relay: 1st (2005, 2007), 2nd (2003)
Individual World records (long course)
200 m freestyle: 1:42.96 (12/08/08)
200 m butterfly: 1 min 52 sec 03 (13/08/08)
200 m individual medley: 1 min 54 sec 80 (04/07/08)
400 m individual medley: 4 min 03 sec 84 (10/08/08)
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Photo by Vironevaeh
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