[Jazz 16]

This guy is a genius.

Phelps joins Olympic elite with nine golds

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps carved his name among Olympic
greats on Tuesday, winning a record-equalling ninth gold on a dominant morning
for Americans in the pool.

Only U.S. athlete Carl Lewis, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz, Finnish distance runner
Paavo Nurmi and Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina have won as many golds as
Phelps, who could better them all on Wednesday when he swims in two more
finals.

Phelps threatens to rewrite many pages of the sporting records in a phenomenal
individual display in Beijing.

His third gold in the Chinese capital keeps him on his long march to a target of
eight wins. That would better Spitz's 1972 tally of seven golds in one Olympics.


Spitz set world record times in all of his victories at the Munich Games, a feat
which Phelps could also eclipse. Each of Phelps's Beijing golds has come in a new
world best time.

The lanky 23-year-old American was in imperious form in the 200m freestyle final,
leading from the start and pulling a body length clear by the halfway stage. He hit
the wall in 1:42:96 to destroy his own world record by 0.90 seconds.

"That's great, I just wanted to be out there at the 50 metre point and be there at
the 100. After that it was just open water," said Phelps, who was back in the pool
winning a 200m butterfly semi-final less than an hour later.

His inspirational swim was the first of three victories for American swimmers in
under 20 minutes, hauling the U.S. team up into second place in the overall
medals table behind China.

[piazza]

He just completed the butterfly and set ANOTHER world record, it never even looked like he was sprinting.

The relay was an absolute joke. World record broken by THREE SECONDS.

5 gold medals. 5 world records. Maybe the greatest athlete ever?

[carlyluvsunited]

His goggles filled with water in the 200m Butterfly, lmao.

He was furious after the race finished too

He wanted to break the world record by 2 seconds
and only did it by 0.6 secs

In the relay he won it himself on the first leg, he
was five metres clear when he finished !!

Four people were joint top on 9 gold medals
including Carl Lewis !!

Phelps went to 10 and then 11 today.

With 3 races still to go !!

Oh, and he will be going to London 2012 as well.

He could finish with 20 Golds !!

Greatest athlete ever ? Do you need to ask ?

Romania whooped the Russian bums in the gymnastics too ...

[asaf cohen]

i reckon he will not only get 8 gold, but also 8 world records. his hardest race by far was the 4 X 100 and he won gold in it, so now there is no doubt, in my mind that he will win 8.

[andersons_left_foot]

i must admit he is pretty amazing to watch his 200 freestyle in the last relay he won his gold on he didnt even seem to be trying it almost looked as if he was just cralwing out the water, his style is very effortless its amazing and by the looks of things hes totally clean so thats pretty impressive good on him im proud to watch such history

[piazza]

Originally Posted by carlyluvsunited

Greatest athlete ever ? Do you need to ask ?

Romania whooped the Russian bums in the gymnastics too ...

...didn't Romania finish 3rd?

[carlyluvsunited]

Originally Posted by piazza

...didn't Romania finish 3rd?

yes, and Russia 4th !!

We won the last 2 Olympics.

We have won a medal in this event for the
last 9 Olympics too ...

Considering USA has 300,000,000 people
to choose from and a mountain of cash
to throw at gymnastics and also consid-
ering China has 1,200,000,000 people to
choose from and also plenty of cash to
throw at gymnastics we do OK with
21,000,000 people and not a lot of
cash ...

In fact, for the last 40 years we have
the best record by far.

Hai Romania ...

Phelps failed to win Gold today !!!

Because he was onl in a semi-final and his next final is tomorrow, lol.

It seems to be the only way to stop him by giving him a day off !!!

[abojodeh]

i hope he dont win any gold medal
Usa is close to China

[jerrakos]

he is a freak of nature

[piazza]

Originally Posted by abojodeh

i hope he dont win any gold medal
Usa is close to China

What? USA and China really aren't close, as a matter of fact we're probably the biggest competitors of each other.