Phelps continues to rewrite Olympic record books following fourth and fifth gold medals in Beijing

Tuesday August 12, 2008, 11:53 PM

 

BEIJING -- Rewriting the swimming record books is child's play for Michael Phelps. Now he's tearing up the Olympic record books, as well.

Phelps won two more races in Beijing Wednesday, the 10th and 11th gold medals of his career. He now has more gold medals than any Olympic athlete in history, breaking the old mark of nine once shared by track stars Carl Lewis of the U.S. and Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish distance runner from the 1920s, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, and American swimmer Mark Spitz.

Phelps' victories' in the 200-meter butterfly and 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay gave him an American-record 13 total medals, one more than swimmer Jenny Thompson.

If there were any event that was considered a cast-iron lock for Phelps, it was the 200-meter butterfly.

Eight years ago at the Sydney Olympics, Phelps finished 5th in the 200 fly as a 15-year-old. He broke the world record the next year, and has dominated ever since, not losing the race since 2002.

So it was no surprise that he won the race here in 1:52.03, breaking his old world record by .06.

The only surprise was that he broke the record by "only" .06, and that his competitors are gaining on him.

Before these Olympics, only one other swimmer, American Gil Stovall, had ever been below 1:54. Wednesday, two other swimmers smashed into Phelps' territory, below 1:53.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary finished second in a European record time of 1:52.70. Japan's Takashi Matsuda won the bronze, setting an Asian record of 1:52.97.

Phelps hoped to go much faster, but a goggle problem stymied him.

"I couldn't see anything for the last 100," he said. "My goggles pretty much filled with water. It just kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls, to be honest.

"But it's fine, 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."

The gold in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay was also nearly a foregone conclusion. The U.S. set a world record at last year's world championships of 7:03.24, nearly seven seconds faster than any other country.

Phelps' led off the race with 1:43.31 split, giving the U.S. a staggering 2.64-second lead. His teammates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay brought it home in 6:58.56, shattering the old world record. Russia got the silver in 7:03.70, and Australia won the bronze in 7:04.98.

Next up in the pool for Phelps: the 200-meter individual medley, with the preliminaries Wednesday night, semifinals on Thursday morning, and finals on Friday morning.

Next up in the record books: gymnast Nikolai Andrianov, with 15 overall medals, second-most to Latynina's 18.

Oh, there's also that little quest for eight gold medals here. In addition to the 200 IM, Phelps' has the 100 fly and 4 x 100 medley relay later this week.