This is a long shot, I know, but if Michael Phelps suddenly decided to break away from the United States and declare himself a sovereign nation, he’d currently be joint-fourth in the medals table at the Olympics — level with the U.S.

A glance to the right of this blog will show China leading with 20 golds and the U.S. second on 10. Phelps has won, or helped win five of those and with three more in his sights over the last few days of the swimming he could take his personal tally to eight.

That would put him out on his own in second.

Phelps, of course, would have to re-swim the relay races, completing each leg himself, but the way he’s going at the moment you wouldn’t put anything past him.

It’d be interesting to hear what he’d go for as a national anthem. How about some of the hip-hop he listens to all the time? A bit of Young Jeezy would liven up the medals ceremonies quite a bit…

(With a large tip of the hat to Karolos Grohmann, sat here next to me)

And now, live from Las Vegas, NBC Live Sports is proud to present: Saturday Night Badminton!

No? How about Saturday Night Fencing? Or maybe: Welcome to The Kayak Bowl!

The big U.S. broadcaster is paying a fortune to televise minority sports such as these from the Beijing Olympics, but don’t expect it to remake its fall TV sports schedule, no matter how many Golds Americans win at them.

We would have asked NBC why they go to the trouble of showing things like judo and rowing, but our top researcher, Keanu, already had a response: “They’d give you a boring answer, dude.” Then he went back to talking to his girlfriend on his mobile.

“So I was like…so he was like…so I was like….”

But, it’s no secret anyway. As everyone knows, track and swim and bike and gym have the lion’s share of gold medals, celebrity, television close-ups and cool stuff at the Olympic Games.

Athletics (47 Golds) has slick shades and gold chains, painted fingernails, cornrows and bad shoes. Swimming (34) already had slinky Speedos, now it has hydrodynamic artificial shark skin suits.

Gymnastics (18) has nymphs in glittery leotards and husky dudes in wife-beaters doing turns on dangerous gear. Cycling (18) has shaved legs and spectacular pileups. And check out the paint jobs on those bikes!

So far, so good. We know why we’re watching. In addition, that is, to the display of skill, strength and endurance from long years of selfless commitment by the athletes.

It’s okay then if, every four years, folks like NBC and the other big media help shine a light on the furthest corners of the world of sport, and even provide commentators to can explain it.

But are the interests of the great masses being sacrificed in the name of elitist sports for the middle classes, who can afford to buy specialist clothing and high-tech gear? Are the world’s most popular bat, stick and ball games being short-changed?

You judge: basketball and football get only two gold medals each. Baseball gets just one. But there are 14 for judo and 14 for rowing and 11 for shooting.

Okay, football and basketball and baseball have their own separate World Cup and NBA playoffs and World Series. But it’s still not clear whose perfect Saturday afternoon sports lineup the Olympic Games is supposed to reflect.

When was the last time you called in sick to sneak off to a fencing match (10 Golds)? Or try to bribe a client with a couple of tickets to the kayaking (12 Golds)?

“Thanks, I already got ringside at synchronised swimming (2 Golds) and after that we’re on standby for tickets to the archery (4 Golds)…”

Olympic wrestling (18 Golds) has come a long way from the jaggedy-assed wool combination suits the guys used to wear. But no amount of lycra can make up for the lack of lace-up leather facemasks, Indian headdresses, silk capes, oiled locks, weird tights and horrible fouls we’re used to seeing on Worldwide Professional Wrestling Federation night. There are no tag teams and no hair-pulling.

Jack Black knows that shunning showmanship won’t work. As he secretly transforms himself from monastery cook into successful wrestling pro in his movie ‘Nacho Libre’, Black explains the exigencies of pro sport to a puzzled orphan.

“When you are a man,” he says, “sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It’s for fun.”

PHOTO: Daigoro Timoncini of Italy (in red) fights Kenzo Kato of Japan during their 96kg men’s Greco-Roman wrestling qualification match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 14, 2008. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

Poor Laszlo Cseh, the Hungarian who twice in these Games has finished second to Michael Phelps, was quite frank when asked by a reporter whether he had thought, during Wednesday’s 200m butterfly that he could actually beat Michael Phelps.

“It never even crossed my mind,” he said.

That should tell you everything about how much better Phelps is than his rivals — they know they are swimming for silver medal at best and that can’t be much fun.

A Hungarian reporter told me that Cseh had spent two months deep down in the dumps after last year’s world championships when he realised how unstoppable Phelps was and that all his work was targeted towards trying to be the next best.

The Russian team, who on Wednesday finished second in the 4×200 freestyle relay to the Phelps-led U.S squad, were a likeable bunch of lads who were beaming at the post-race press conference, as if they had actually won gold.

When they were asked about how they rated Phelps, all four of them laughed. “He may be human but he’s from a different planet,” said Alexander Sukhorukov.

Phelps insisted he wasn’t unbeatable but watching him leave the fastest swimmers in the world in his wake throughout this week it really is hard to picture him fighting for second best.

Statistically, in terms of gold medals, Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian of all-time.

Whether or not he is the greatest Olympian of all time (join the debate here) it is hard to think of any other athlete who has so utterly dominated his opponents in so many events as Phelps.

He has simply turned the rest of the field into also-rans — and yet, like Laszlo Cseh — still they try.

For a factbox on Michael Phelps click here. This piece by Crispian Balmer on the Phelps phenomenon is also an excellent read.

In all the excitement over Michael Phelps and his bid for eight golds it’d be easy to overlook a few other extraordinary achievements at the Games today.

Amid the gold rush at the Water Cube, Rebecca Adlington won Britain’s first Olympic women’s swimming title in nearly half a century with a victory in the 400 metres freestyle that was every bit as exciting as the American relay win that kept Phelps’s hopes of eight golds alive.

As Derek Parr writes, Adlington, fourth at the final turn, hurtled down the last length to overhaul American Katie Hoff and clinch the gold by a tiny 0.07 seconds in four minutes 03.22 seconds.

Hoff clung on to take the silver in 4:03.29 while Joanne Jackson provided Britain with a second medal when she finished third in 4:03.52.

No prize on offer, but if you know who the last woman gold medallist for Britain was in swimming, show off your knowledge in the comments.

It’s been a great start to the Games for Britain, who got their first gold with Nicole Cooke’s win in the women’s road race event in the cycling on Sunday. As hosts of the next Games there will be a special focus on the Brits. I wonder how many medals they can win in Beijing to give a boost to preparation for London 2012. 

But if you think 48 years is a long time to wait for a gold, how about more than a century?

India, current population around 1.1 billion, had never won a gold medal at the Olympics in any individual event before Abhinav Bindra won in the men’s 10m air rifle on Monday.

“I can’t describe how happy I am,” the ever-calm Bindra told journalists. “It’s the thrill of my life. That’s about it.”

And don’t forget the other world records at the Water Cube today. In the same race that gave Phelps his second gold, Eamon Sullivan claimed the individual world record when he led the Australian team off on the first lap.

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima justified his pre-race hype by shaving 0.22 seconds off the world record to win the 100 metre breaststroke and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry took 0.20 seconds off the world record for 100 metres backstroke during her semi-final.

All in all a belting morning, and we’ll be discussing it all later on our podcast.

PHOTOS (from the top): Rebecca Adlington (R) and Joanne Jackson hold up their medals from the 400 meters freestyle swimming final, August 11, 2008. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach; Abhinav Bindra of India looks at his gold medal after the men’s 10m air rifle final shooting. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

Weightlifting is not the most glamorous Olympic sport. Forget about glitzy endorsement deals, tabloid tell-alls and magazine shoots. This is a world where taciturn men from Belarus and compact women from China win their gold medals in relative obscurity.

But for 67 minutes on Saturday morning, weightlifting had its place in the limelight.

Millions of Chinese had hoped shooter Du Li would win the first gold on offer at the Olympics for her homeland. Du caved in under pressure and failed, leaving the hopes of an entire nation resting on weightlifter Chen Xiexia’s broad shoulders.

Weightlifting competitions progress from the weakest lifters to the strongest, and so we were watching several short women stumble, fall over or collapse under the weight of the barbells when suddenly the news broke that Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic had won the air rifle gold.

The Reuters news flash of Emmons’ victory and therefore, Du’s defeat, appeared at 11:54, Beijing time. All of a sudden, weightlifting seemed a lot more important than before.

At the shooting range, Chinese fans kept their voices down to avoid distracting Du. In the weightlifting hall, they had apparently decided there was no such thing as too much pressure.

The cheers and shouts built up gradually: a warm welcome for Thailand’s Laosirikul Pensiri, enthusiastic clapping for South Korean Im Jyounghwa, huge cheers and shouts of “Go! Go!” for Taiwan’s Chen Wei-Ling. The Chinese audience was generously rooting for everyone in the Asian neighbourhood, even the island they see as a renegade province.

Then their own Chen Xiexia stepped on to the stage, yelling a slogan to fire herself up. The crowd went berserk.

There were Chinese flags big and small, shouts of “Go China!”, whooping, cheers, applause, all converging into a deafening roar.

Chen was in a class of her own. Every other woman in the competition seemed to battle with the barbells, and many folded, failed to stretch their arms or lost their balance while straining to lift more than twice their bodyweight.

Again and again, Chen yelled, grabbed the bar, and lifted the weights with the confidence and precision. Easy. Her closest rivals all lifted around 195kg-199kg. In a sport where a single extra kilogram can make a lifter stumble, Chen hoisted up a combined total of 212kg.

At 13:01, we sent another newsflash: “China’s Chen Xiexia wins Olympic gold medal in women’s 48kg weightlifting.”

By then, I could hardly hear my own voice amid the cries of celebration.

PHOTO: Chen Xiexia of China poses with her gold medal for the women’s 48kg Group A weightlifting competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 9, 2008. REUTERS/Yves Herman