Lupin
08-17-2008, 9:04 AM
Gotta give credit to Michael Phelps and his teammates for getting his eighth gold medal breaking Mark Spitz's 7-medal record.:thumbsup: :dance: That's really exciting.:dance:
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080817/tsp-oly2008-76274bf.html
BEIJING (AFP) - - Michael Phelps cemented his place in Olympics history Sunday, capping a sensational week by becoming the first athlete ever to win eight gold medals in one Games.
Phelps brought the curtain down on a record-breaking week of swimming when he directed the US team to victory in the 4x100m medley relay and overtook fellow US legend Mark Spitz's seven gold medals at Munich 36 years ago.
The 23-year-old Phelps also broke seven world records through the week and became the most successful Olympian of all time with a career 14 gold medals.
"I'm lost for words," he said.
"The whole thing, every race, one after the other from winning by one-hundredth of a second to finishing if off with a world record. It's an amazing experience," he added, crediting the relay team for making it possible.
His butterfly leg was key to the relay victory, as he turned a third-place behind Japan and Australia at the halfway point into a lead which freestylist Jason Lezak would never surrender.
Daily superhuman performances saw Phelps constantly command centre stage in Beijing, although late Saturday the headlines switched to Jamaican Usain Bolt who became the fastest man on earth winning the 100m final in world record time.
China appeared destined to overhaul their Games best total of 32 gold medals as they reached 31 with several table tennis and gymnastics finals yet to be decided Sunday.
The United States remain second on the medal table with 17 ahead of Great Britain on 11.
Romanian mother of two Constantina Tomescu launched the Olympics' busiest day Sunday, with 37 finals, when she raced away with the women's marathon in a time of 2hours 26minutes 44seconds.
The men's 10,000m final shapes as an Ethiopian clean sweep with Kenenisa Bekele looking to defend his title from former champion Haile Gebrselassie and Sileshi Sihine, the silver medallist in Athens.
Kerron Stewart looked likely to join Bolt as a Jamaican sprint winner, leading the favourites after the heats of the women's 100m.
Hours before the start of the women's 400m hurdles defending champion Fani Halkia from Greece was thrown out when Olympic officials received the results of a failed drugs test in Japan while she was preparing for Beijing.
In the pool the US relay team took more than 1.3sec off the previous world record while Australia clipped more than three seconds off the women's 4x100m medley relay record.
But Grant Hackett's dream of an historic three 1500m freestyle golds at consecutive Olympics was snapped by Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli who, after nearly 15 minutes of racing, finished a mere 0.49sec ahead of the Australian.
Russia cleaned up the women's tennis singles with Elena Dementieva coming from a set down to beat Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 while Vera Zvonareva beat China's Li Na 6-0, 7-5 in the play-off for bronze.
The US sisters Serena and Venus Williams beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual in the women's doubles final to repeat their succcess in Sydney in 2000.
Zou Kai won the men's floor exercise final to give China their fourth gymnastics gold from five finals.
It has been Britain's most successful day in Beijing, sitting down to win four golds in cycling, rowing and yachting.
Cyclist Rebecca Romero became the first woman to win medals in two different sports when she won the women's individual pursuit to go with the rowing silver medal she won in Athens.
Finn class sailor Ben Ainslie became Britain's most successful Olympic yachtsman by winning his third gold medal.
However Romanian rowing queen Georgeta Andrunache's bid to be the first rower to win six gold medals came apart in the women's eight when Romania was beaten into third by the United States and the Netherlands.
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080817/tsp-oly2008-76274bf.html
BEIJING (AFP) - - Michael Phelps cemented his place in Olympics history Sunday, capping a sensational week by becoming the first athlete ever to win eight gold medals in one Games.
Phelps brought the curtain down on a record-breaking week of swimming when he directed the US team to victory in the 4x100m medley relay and overtook fellow US legend Mark Spitz's seven gold medals at Munich 36 years ago.
The 23-year-old Phelps also broke seven world records through the week and became the most successful Olympian of all time with a career 14 gold medals.
"I'm lost for words," he said.
"The whole thing, every race, one after the other from winning by one-hundredth of a second to finishing if off with a world record. It's an amazing experience," he added, crediting the relay team for making it possible.
His butterfly leg was key to the relay victory, as he turned a third-place behind Japan and Australia at the halfway point into a lead which freestylist Jason Lezak would never surrender.
Daily superhuman performances saw Phelps constantly command centre stage in Beijing, although late Saturday the headlines switched to Jamaican Usain Bolt who became the fastest man on earth winning the 100m final in world record time.
China appeared destined to overhaul their Games best total of 32 gold medals as they reached 31 with several table tennis and gymnastics finals yet to be decided Sunday.
The United States remain second on the medal table with 17 ahead of Great Britain on 11.
Romanian mother of two Constantina Tomescu launched the Olympics' busiest day Sunday, with 37 finals, when she raced away with the women's marathon in a time of 2hours 26minutes 44seconds.
The men's 10,000m final shapes as an Ethiopian clean sweep with Kenenisa Bekele looking to defend his title from former champion Haile Gebrselassie and Sileshi Sihine, the silver medallist in Athens.
Kerron Stewart looked likely to join Bolt as a Jamaican sprint winner, leading the favourites after the heats of the women's 100m.
Hours before the start of the women's 400m hurdles defending champion Fani Halkia from Greece was thrown out when Olympic officials received the results of a failed drugs test in Japan while she was preparing for Beijing.
In the pool the US relay team took more than 1.3sec off the previous world record while Australia clipped more than three seconds off the women's 4x100m medley relay record.
But Grant Hackett's dream of an historic three 1500m freestyle golds at consecutive Olympics was snapped by Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli who, after nearly 15 minutes of racing, finished a mere 0.49sec ahead of the Australian.
Russia cleaned up the women's tennis singles with Elena Dementieva coming from a set down to beat Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 while Vera Zvonareva beat China's Li Na 6-0, 7-5 in the play-off for bronze.
The US sisters Serena and Venus Williams beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual in the women's doubles final to repeat their succcess in Sydney in 2000.
Zou Kai won the men's floor exercise final to give China their fourth gymnastics gold from five finals.
It has been Britain's most successful day in Beijing, sitting down to win four golds in cycling, rowing and yachting.
Cyclist Rebecca Romero became the first woman to win medals in two different sports when she won the women's individual pursuit to go with the rowing silver medal she won in Athens.
Finn class sailor Ben Ainslie became Britain's most successful Olympic yachtsman by winning his third gold medal.
However Romanian rowing queen Georgeta Andrunache's bid to be the first rower to win six gold medals came apart in the women's eight when Romania was beaten into third by the United States and the Netherlands.