Phelps golden twice more, breaks all-time Olympic record

Phelps golden twice more, breaks all-time Olympic record

Beijing, China - One record down, several more to go.

Michael Phelps claimed two more gold medals on Wednesday morning, one by himself in the 200-meter butterfly and one as part of the United States' winning 800-meter freestyle relay team, to break the all-time Olympic record for career gold medals.

Phelps now has 11 gold medals, two more than any other athlete, and is now halfway to breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.

Phelps lowered his own world record in the 200 butterfly by .06 seconds to 1 minute, 52.03 seconds for his first gold Wednesday, despite not being able to fully see the walls as his goggles filled with water.

He later swam the first leg of the 800 freestyle relay, giving the U.S. a lead of almost two full body lengths after the first 200 meters. The Americans smashed their own world record by 4.68 seconds, swimming the 16 laps in 6:58.56 to beat Russia and Australia.

Phelps, also the 2004 champion in the 200 butterfly, was as far as .12 seconds ahead of his previous record after 150 meters. He was pushed in the last 25 meters or so by the swimmers on either side of him -- Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.

But Phelps was too much. Again.

He has now set world records in each of his gold medal swims here, also winning the 400-meter individual medley and 200-meter freestyle as individual events. Phelps was part of the thrilling, record-setting 400-meter freestyle relay the U.S. ran Monday.

Cseh won silver behind Phelps for the second time here after also finishing second to the American's first gold medal swim in the 400 IM on Sunday. He touched in 1:52.70 -- .67 seconds behind Phelps -- for a new European record.

Matsuda took bronze and set a new Asian record at 1:52.97.

Phelps will also swim in the men's 800-meter freestyle relay later Wednesday morning, which the U.S. is expected to win.

He moved past Spitz, American track and field star Carl Lewis, former Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi for the all-time Olympic gold medal record.

If Phelps goes on to break Spitz's Holy Grail record for gold medals in one Olympics -- or even if he wins eight medals of any kind here -- Phelps would be the all-time winningest medal winner among male Olympians with 16.

Earlier, Federica Pellegrini of Italy won the gold medal and broke her own world record in the women's 200-meter freestyle.

Pellegrini, who had set the old mark on Monday, lowered it by .63 seconds to 1 minute, 54.82 seconds to win by just less than one-tenth of a second.

Slovenia's Sara Isakovic won the silver medal, her country's first in swimming, at 2:06.34 while China's Pang Jiaying took bronze in 2:06.42.

American Katie Hoff failed to win her third medal of the Beijing Olympics, finishing .73 seconds out of contention for the bronze with a new American record in the event of 1:55.78.