Phelps makes Olympic history

[homedawg]

Michael Phelps broke the career gold-medal record at the Olympics today.

Phelps lifted his gold-medal total to 11 with world record- breaking wins in the 200-meter butterfly and 800 freestyle relay. He moved within three victories of surpassing fellow American Mark Spitz's single-Games mark of seven golds set in 1972 and will swim three more events in Beijing.

Phelps won the butterfly in a record time of 1 minute, 52.03 seconds after his goggles filled with water at the start. That victory pulled him ahead of the nine golds of Spitz, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larissa Latynina on the career list.

``When I was on the awards stand I started thinking about it and that's when I started tearing up,'' Phelps, 23, told reporters. ``To know that I did it, at the top, with so many great athletes, to be at these Olympics, it's pretty amazing.''

Less than an hour after the butterfly, Phelps swam the lead-off leg as the U.S. won the freestyle relay and sliced more than four seconds off the world record.

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

Hi races are too funny....the camera has to go back and forth from him to the pack, cause he's so far in front. The Canadian feed pretty much has to do a split-screen with him and the Canadian swimmer! lmao...

What an amazing athlete...

[homedawg]

No. 8 for Phelps

Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal of these Olympics Sunday morning, swimming the third leg for the victorious 4x100 medley relay team.

Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak -- whose heroic anchor leg in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay kept Phelps' medal chase on track -- won in a world record 3:29.34.

The U.S. team shaved more than a second off the mark they had set four years ago in Athens.

[Ass Man]

Phelps is the ultimate bad ass. He's easily the most dominant athlete in the world.

[FlyersFan]

Phelps shmelps.........

my favorite olympian is HE WINNA............. ....chinese trampolineist.....

[Queen]

Well at least I was still around to see both feat's !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember watching Mark Spitz back in 1972 win 7

Sometimes I think the change the rules to break record.

Spitz could only swim in 7 events


I know Im old. LOL

PS Im still waiting on the Olympics to add the Home Run Derby and the Slam Dunk contest for gold medals. LMAO Hey I got it in four years add Punt, Pass and Kick event.

Hey they did add Basket Polo Soccer this year. What the hell was that I was watching the other day it looked liked Dribble Small basket ball, pass like Water polo threwing the thing in to a soccer Net??? I guess who ever thought up that game was really high. LOL Another good name for it could have been Nerd Basketball. LOL Hey that gave me another Idea. How about Nerf Basketball???

[homedawg]

Originally Posted by Queen

Sometimes I think the change the rules to break record.

Spitz could only swim in 7 events

Only 7?

[homedawg]

He's the greatest Olympian who ever lived, I do think it's difficult to compare [different sports], but in terms of just sheer dominance in his events and the times he's putting up and what he's done now in two Olympics … I think it's hard to argue.



What is more definitive is how Phelps stacks up against Spitz, who won seven gold medals in 1972, a mark that stood unchallenged for 36 years. The two swimmers are not close and have met and exchanged words only a few times, but they will be forever linked in some people's eyes.

"Being compared to the greatest Olympian of all time, that's not bad," Phelps said this year. "But I want to do something that no one else has ever done before. I want people to look at me as being one of a kind."

Spitz, who this week told Agence France-Presse he was upset at not being invited by anyone to come to Beijing and chose not to come on his own, was gracious about Phelps on The Today Show on Thursday morning.

"He is the single greatest Olympic athlete of all time now," Spitz told Today co-host Matt Lauer from California. "He will be probably the single greatest athlete compared to anybody in any century, the 20th, the 21st century - whatever.

"You know, you judge a person's character by the company you keep, and I'm glad I'm keeping company with Michael Phelps. I'll be happy to stand aside and let him carry the torch. He's just one great athlete, and it's very exciting to watch him."

Most people in the world of swimming feel that Phelps' performance this week easily exceeds what Spitz did in Munich, and there isn't much to debate.

"Mark was a very talented swimmer, and very dominant in his time," said Mark Schubert, director of USA Swimming and head coach for every Olympic team since 1992. "I think that the difference with Michael is that he has a much more challenging program, and I think that the competition throughout the world is more challenging."

In 1972, when Spitz swept his events, there were only 21 countries competing and only 10 countries that medaled in swimming. The United States won 43 medals between its men's and women's teams, 17 of them gold. The rest of the world combined to win 44.

On the men's side in 1972, at least two American men medaled in every event except the 200-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter individual medley, and the United States won all three relays by more than three seconds. The Americans actually swept the 200-meter butterfly, something that isn't even possible now because the rules were changed limiting each country to two competitors per event.

At the 2008 Games, the competition is much fiercer. Twenty-four nations are competing, and through the first six days, 16 different nations had already medaled. "We can't even compare Michael to Mark," says Jon Urbanchek, an assistant coach on six Olympic teams. "It's apples and oranges. It's a different ballgame. … Technology has changed, their personalities are different. I'm not saying anything negative about Spitz, but his time is gone. It's time to turn the reins over to somebody else."

In 1972, Spitz was the best in the world in two strokes - freestyle and butterfly. Phelps is an elite freestyler, the best butterfly swimmer in the world, and he's probably the third-best backstroker in the world behind Aaron Piersol and Ryan Lochte.

Additionally, Phelps is the most dominant individual medley swimmer ever, which is probably the best measure of overall swimming talent because it requires competency in all four strokes. Spitz did not swim the individual medleys.

"Michael is the best in the world in three different strokes," Urbanchek said. "It's totally unusual for anyone to have a talent like that in those three different strokes. Michael Jordan was talented in basketball, but he couldn't hit the baseball, could he?"

Competitively, Spitz and Phelps are also different creatures. Spitz also wanted to drop the 100-meter freestyle at the last minute in 1972 because he didn't think he would win, worried it would ruin his perfect Olympics. A teammate and coach talked him out of it, and he won by 0.4 of a second.

Phelps took the exact opposite approach in 2004, choosing to swim the 200-meter freestyle even though he knew he probably could not win. He took third behind Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband.

"When I do lose like that, it just motivates me to swim faster," Phelps said.

While Phelps is very much one of the guys, Spitz was a loner, distant from his teammates. He has a complicated relationship with the world of swimming, even today. He helped increase the popularity of swimming, but he has also rubbed people the wrong way.

Other than 41-year-old Dara Torres, no member of the U.S. swimming team was even alive when Spitz won seven golds in Munich. But for those watching the ride this time around, it's a daily thrill.

"It's unreal," said Matt Grevers, a silver medalist in the 100-meter backstroke. "I never thought I'd see this type of swimming in my life. It's absolutely going to be something for the ages. A hundred years from now, people are going to remember these Olympics for what Team USA and especially Michael did."

Phelps said he hopes what he's doing can have enough impact to increase interest in his sport. He laughed this week when a reporter informed him that there were trading cards of him selling for $500 on eBay.

"That seems like a pretty good deal," Phelps joked. "[Swimming] is definitely on the way up. I heard that the ratings are the highest back home that they've ever been for the Olympics and watching swimming. More and more people are starting to get interested and get more involved. So, I think my goal of raising the bar in swimming is coming along, but it's going to take time to really get it where I want."

[LLXC]

Was crazy how he won his 7th gold? (100m butterfly) and his 2nd (4x100 freestyle). Both it looked like he wasn't going to make history.