I suppose Michael Phelps’s performance at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games last night (today in China) should be unbelievable but waking up to report that the man has not won just one Gold Medal but 2 Gold Medals in competition isn’t all that surprising for me … not when we’re talking about our dear Phelpsie. Michael Phelps did win 2 Gold Medals last night and set 2 World Records in the process (thus far, he’s 5 for 5 attempts at Gold Medals at this Summer Olympic Games and 5 for 5 World Records) bringing his overall Gold Medal count to 11 — the most Gold Medals won by any Olympic athlete in the 100+ year history of the Modern Olympic Games. First up last night (today in China), Michael Phelps took home the Gold and set the World Record in the Men’s 200-meter Butterfly event:
Michael Phelps has become the winningest Olympic athlete ever, earning his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Games with a world record in the 200-meter butterfly. The American touched in 1 minute, 52.03 seconds, breaking his old mark of 1:52.09 set at last year’s world championships in Australia. It was Phelps’ 10th career gold medal, breaking a tie with Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and two others for most golds. He is 4-for-4 so far, setting world records in each of his events.
But that was just his first event of the night, next up came the Men’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay where Phelps and his teammates Ricky Berens, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay won more Gold, set another World Record:
On the fifth day of swimming at the Beijing Games, Phelps collected his fourth and fifth gold medals, becoming the career leader in Olympic golds with 11. He broke his own world record in the 200-meter butterfly of 1 minute 52.03 seconds, trimming 0.06 off his 17-month-old mark even though his goggles filled with water when he dived into the water. Less than an hour later, Phelps led off the United States’ 4x-200 freestyle relay in 1:43.31, almost three seconds faster than his nearest competitor, to set the tone for the Americans’ rousing victory. The squad of Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay clocked a 6:58.56 — the first sub-seven minute performance — to finish 5.14 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Russia, which was only 0.46 seconds off the listed world record. In a sport where races often are decided by hundredths of a second, Phelps, 23, has won three of his five golds here by a margin of 1.89 seconds or more. “There’s nobody in any sport that can win like he wins,” Reese said. “He’s not just winning, he’s crunching world records and crunching the fields. It’s amazing” … “I couldn’t see anything for the last 100,” said Phelps, who said he gauged where the walls were by counting his strokes. He could not tear his goggles off because he was wearing two caps and the strap was safely tucked between them. “It just kept getting worse and worse through the race,” he said.”I wanted to break the record. I wanted to go 1:51 or better, but for the circumstances I guess it’s not too bad.” Shaking his head at Phelps’s goggles mishap, Reese said: “Just think how fast that would have been. We were looking for an amazingly fast swim the way he had swum in the semifinals and the prelims. He would have been at least a second faster.” Physical exhaustion, mental stress, equipment malfunctions — all of it falls away when Phelps hits the water.
Holy Shizz! He can even win Gold Medals with his eyes shut! Oh yeah, I think at this point it is very safe to say that Michael Phelps is THE greatest Olympic Athlete of all time … arguably the greatest American athlete and by the end of these Olympic Games, possibly the greatest athlete of all time. It sounds like hyperbolic exaggeration but if you consider that the man just keeps winning Gold Medals and keeps doing so in World Record time … it’s not a tough case to make. Phelps has 3 more chances to win Gold Medals/set World Records … bring it on, I say, I have a feeling that Olympic History is going to continue to be made inside the Water Cube at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
[Source, Source, Source]
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