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Phelps Sets Olympic Mark With 10th, 11th Golds

The Associated Press

Michael Phelps of the United States poses with the gold medal during the medal ceremony for the men's 200 butterfly.

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By PAUL NEWBERRY

The Associated Press

Published: August 13, 2008

BEIJING - Tied no more. Michael Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals - and fourth world record of the Beijing Games.

A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis with gold No. 9, Phelps claimed the medals record all to himself when he won the 200-meter butterfly this morning.

Phelps had a problem with his goggles - but that didn't keep him from touching first.

Later, he combined with Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay to win the 800 freestyle relay gold, giving him 11 gold medals.

He's now all alone at the top, with three more chances to stretch his lead before he leaves China.

In the fly, his signature stroke, Phelps was second at the first flip, then pushed it into another gear, his long arms gobbling up huge chunks of water as he literally sailed along atop the surface. He touched the wall in 1 minutes, 52.03 seconds, breaking his mark of 1:52.09 from last year's world championships.

He barely smiled as he looked at the board, breathing heavily and hanging on the lane rope. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh really pushed it at the end, but settled for silver in 1:52.70. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda took the bronze in 1:52.97.

Phelps rubbed his eyes and said climbing from the pool, "I can't see anything." A pair of leaky goggles kept him from even seeing the wall as he finished.

Still, it was another gold and another record, taking Phelps halfway to his goal of beating Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single games.

"My goggles kept filling up with water during the race," he said. "I wanted a world record, I wanted 1:51 or better, but in the circumstances not too bad I guess."

In the 800 freestyle relay, the American quartet swam a world-record time of 6:58.56. Second went to Russia in 7:03.70, while Australia was third in 7:04.98.

Just to set the tone, three worlds records fell before Phelps even walked on deck.

In the semifinals of the 100 free, Australia's Eamon Sullivan and France's Alain Bernard played takeaway with the record Sullivan set two days earlier.

In the first heat, Bernard won in 47.20 to knock down Sullivan's mark of 47.24 from the leadoff leg of the memorable 400 free relay. That record lasted all of 2 minutes. Sullivan won the second heat in 47.05, setting up a thrilling showdown in Thursday's final.

American Jason Lezak, who chased down Bernard in the relay, advanced to the final with the sixth-best time, 47.98. The other U.S. swimmer, Garrett Weber-Gale, failed to advance.

Then it was Federica Pelligrini's turn. The Italian broke the mark she set a day earlier in the semifinals, winning gold in 1:54.82. The old record was 1:55.45.

Sara Isakovic of Slovenia claimed the bronze in 1:54.97, and China's Pang Jiaying thrilled the home fans by passing Katie Hoff on the final lap to take bronze in 1:55.05.

It was another disappointment for Hoff, who looked to be one of the big stories of the game when she qualified in five individual events - the same number as Phelps.

After Phelps' individual win, Stephanie Rice of Australia won the 200 individual medley, lowering her own world record and adding to her victory in the 400 IM.

She won in 2 minutes, 8.45 seconds, erasing her mark of 2:08.92 set at the Australian trials in March.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe took silver in 2:08.59. Natalie Coughlin of the United States won bronze, her third medal of the games.

Hoff was fourth, finishing behind Coughlin in 2:10.68.

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