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Phelps out on his own with eighth gold medal — your views
Michael Phelps completed his record-breaking haul of eight gold medals at one Games on Sunday, beating fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven from Munich in 1972.
This one was never in much doubt — in stark contrast to the ‘fingernail’ win in yesterday’s butterfly — as he and his American team won the 4 x 100 metres medley relay comfortably. It took his overall tally to 14 from two Games.
He was already the athlete with most Olympic gold medals; now he has overtaken Spitz’s record too.
Not everyone may regard him as the greatest Olympian ever, but this was surely the greatest single feat at one Games.
What do you think?
Heroic Phelps equals Spitz record (Update x2)
Michael Phelps joined Mark Spitz at the highest peak of Olympic achievement on Saturday when his final, desperate lunge for the board brought him victory in the 100m butterfly by the thinnest possible margin and gave him his seventh gold medal at these Games — after an official protest from Serbia was rejected.
Milorad Cavic of Serbia appeared to have the gold tied up until Phelps’s perfect timing saw him home by one hundredth of a second. That is as precise as the timekeeping goes but if anything it looked less than that and shortly after the race Serbia protested the result.
That was rejected a few minutes later, confirming the seventh gold for Phelps.
”I actually thought when I did take that half stroke I thought I had lost the race right there, but I guess that was the difference in the end,” Phelps told reporters after the race but before the protest was launched.
“The last two Olympics I have been able to nail my finishes, I’m happy and at a loss for words but excited.”
Spitz is the only other man to have achieved the feat of seven golds at a single Games, back in Munich in 1972. Phelps will go clear of him on Sunday if, as expected, he joins his American team mates in winning the 4×100 medley relay.
FINA has reviewed the tape by ten-thousandsth of a second a frame to show that Phelps did indeed touch the wall first. The electronic touchpad confirmed it, the Kenyen referee confirmed it, and even the Serb swimming committee was there to see the tape for themselves. What is there to argue about?
I saw the replay too. At first it appeared as if Cavic touched the wall first but if you take a closer look – he didnt touch it yet, he was just really close to it. When Cavic was gliding Phelps was stroking and when Cavic was just a fingernal away from the wall BOOM! Phelps hands went past Cavic to touch it first. It is almost too close to see but in that last millisecond Phelps’ hands were faster than the Cavic. And that made the difference.
Even if there is a debate it is whether they tied or not and whether there would be 2 winners. In any case Phelps would still have that Gold medal anyway.
Michael Phelps — a modest American hero
If anyone at this Games could be forgiven for being a little bit conceited, a touch arrogant or slightly dismissive of his opponents then it surely would be Michael Phelps. Six races, six gold medals, six world records — it must be hard to keep your feet on the ground.
The reality is that having watched Phelps close-up this week, both poolside and in the press conference room, there isn’t the slightest whiff of arrogance about him. Even when provoked, by a reporter’s question about doping for example, he remains calm and respectful giving a sensible answer.
More importantly he remains respectful to his fellow athletes, in his own, rather reserved way.
I asked Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, who has finished behind Phelps on three occasions in these Games, what Phelps had said to him after the race and he smiled, “He just said ‘good race’.”
The 12-time gold medallist has celebrated his triumphs in a restrained manner — no whooping, no tears, no dancing poolside — just that one, genuine, roar of delight after the thrilling 4×100 relay win.
Asked about becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, Phelps said that sounded “pretty neat”. That was refreshing because it managed to avoid sounding arrogant or falsely modest.
Phelps’s demeanour does reflect a culture of swimming that tends to discourage excessive bravado. The competitors spend a lot of time in training camps together and compete against each other in the annual world championships and the familiarity breeds respect.
hii people of the cyber world!
.. well im not american or chinese so no prejudice lol michael phelps might not say anything stuck up or egoistic but i dont like how he doesnt sing the anthem and doesnt really seem to show respect to that part of the olympics..
.. i just see him talking or giving this smirk, nothing decent or respectful(in all the medeal ceremonies). but then again the whole american relay team that won didnt sing a word of the anthem
so you americans probably dont know the words of your own anthem because i wouldnt believe for a second that your not ‘proud to be american!’ hhahaahaa
ooh and all the slack that china is getting for abusing human rights, thats just hypocrtical to the max! americans (or atleast the people running the country) just invade countries for oil, meddle in wars with other countries and cause even more damage and deaths, and then take other people to criminal war tribunals when the american leaders are the biggest criminals on the face of the planet!!
( please dont take offence if youre merely an american civilian, im purely critising your leaders not you except the comment on not knowing the words of your anthem thats an attack on the swimmers and if they dont know the anthem them im thinking not many americans do!
Phantastic Mr Phelps (x2)
Michael Phelps made light of goggle trouble to claim his fourth gold medal of the Games and then helped his American team win the 4 x 100 m freestyle and make it five wins from five, in fact five world records from five, at these Games.
He now has 11 Olympic gold medals, which puts clear blue water between him and four athletes who have won nine.
He is still on course to break the old record of seven golds at one Games, held by Mark Spitz, after what were two more breathtaking swims on Wednesday.
Victory in the butterfly came despite the fact that goggle trouble was making it difficult for him to see.
“My goggles filled up with water all the time and I had difficulty seeing the walls,” he told reporters.
He shaved 0.06 seconds off the world record in that race but that was nothing to the time he and his team mates posted in the relay. Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay carved 4.68 seconds off the world record to win the gold in 6:58.56 with Russia a distant second and Australia third.
Phelps three in three, joins Olympic elite
There was never any doubt about this one. Michael Phelps won the 200m freestyle, secured his third gold medal of these Games — his third world record, too — and become only the fifth athlete to win nine gold medals at the Summer Olympics.
He joins fellow Americans Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis, Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi and Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina at the top of the all-time list of gold medal winners.
But the record he really has in his sights is Spitz’s haul of seven gold medals in Munich in 1972. Can anything now stop Phelps going on to win all all eight?
He certainly looks to be swimming better than ever at the these Games, with today’s time of 1:42.96 shattering his own world record by 0.90 seconds. It was an astonishing performance.
Can he manage five more?
PHOTO: Michael Phelps of the U.S. swims in his men’s 200 meters butterfly heat at the National Aquatics Center during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 11, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray
Michael Phelps — one down, seven to go
Michael Phelps shattered his own world record to win the 400m individual swimming medley in four minutes 03.84 seconds and claim the first of what could be a record-breaking haul of eight gold medals.
The American swimmer, who won six golds at the last Olympics in Athens, has his sights on beating the record of seven golds bagged by Mark Spitz in 1972. The secondary target is four golds to take him ahead of Spitz, Carl Lewis, Finnish middle and long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina, the former Soviet gymnast, in the list of athletes with the most gold medals at the Olympics (currently nine).
Today’s race was one of his two weakest individual events so winning it will give him real hope of at least matching Spitz’s achievement.
Do you think he can beat it? He looked extremely comfortable both in the heats, when he broke what was the Olympic record, and in Sunday’s final, when he blew everyone away.
PHOTO: Michael Phelps of the U.S. celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men’s 400m individual medley during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 10, 2008. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen
Hi Rebecca. Thanks for that. If you look at our home page http://blogs.reuters.com/china and scroll down a bit you’ll find our latest story on Phelps. I’ll also be adding an appreciation from one of our reporters in a few minutes.
I have to agree with Jef. Phelps has been great…but it’s getting a bit worn out, and I’m gradually getting tired of reading about ‘record-breaking’ and ‘historic’ Phelps. It’s like I’ve been reading the same story every day for the last 8 days. The 1/100ths of a second win yesterday was the special one we’ll remember. Let’s have something fresh to read about here, eh?