Phelps wins fouth, fifth medals in Beijing

BEIJING -- Michael Phelps swam into history Wednesday as the athlete to win the most Olympic golds ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals — and five world records at the Beijing Games.

A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina with gold No. 9, Phelps claimed the record all to himself when he won the 200-meter butterfly Wednesday morning. An hour later, he returned to swim the leadoff of a runaway victory by the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team, which shattered the old mark by more than 4 seconds.

Phelps claimed the 200 butterfly record in 1 minute, 52.03 seconds, lowering his old mark of 1:52.09 from the 2007 worlds. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver in 1:52.70. Takeshi Matsuda of Japan got the bronze in 1:52.97.

In his individual event, Phelps had a problem with his goggles. But that didn't keep him from touching first.

No such worries in the relay. Seemingly impervious to fatigue, the gangly American set a blistering pace of 1:43.31 that got the Americans rolling toward a winning time of 6:58.56 — the first team ever to break the 7-minute barrier.

"Come on! Come on!" he screamed at teammates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay.

The previous record of 7:03.24 was set by the Americans at last year's world championships. Russia took the silver, more than 5 seconds behind the Americans, who mainly had to make sure they didn't jump in the water too soon. Australia won the bronze.

"Safe start! Safe start!" Phelps yelled at Berens before he dove in.

Phelps is now all alone at the top of the career golds list, with three more chances to stretch his lead before he leaves China.

In his signature stroke, Phelps was second at the first flip, then pushed it into another gear.

Phelps barely smiled as he looked at the board, breathing heavily and hanging on the lane rope. He rubbed his eyes and said climbing from the pool, "I can't see anything." A pair of leaky goggles kept him from even seeing the wall as he touched.

"My goggles kept filling up with water during the race," Phelps said. "I wanted a world record, I wanted 1:51 or better, but in the circumstances not too bad I guess."

Still, he had two more golds and two more records before lunchtime, leaving him just three wins away from beating Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single games.

He is also keeping pace with Spitz on the record front. Spitz's set new world standards in all of his wins at Munich; Phelps is now 5-for-5 in China.

Three worlds records fell before Phelps even walked on deck the first time.

In the semifinals of the 100 free, Australia's Eamon Sullivan and France's Alain Bernard exchanged the record Sullivan set two days earlier.

In the first heat, Bernard won in 47.20 to knock down Sullivan's mark of 47.24 from the leadoff leg of the memorable 400 free relay. That record lasted all of 2 minutes. Sullivan won the second heat in 47.05, setting up a thrilling showdown in Thursday's final.

"Records don't mean much," Sullivan said. "They don't win medals at the end of the day, unfortunately. But it gives me confidence that I can swim my own race under pressure."

Then it was Federica Pelligrini's turn in the women's 200 free. The Italian broke the mark she set a day earlier in the semifinals, winning gold in 1:54.82. The old record was 1:55.45.

Sara Isakovic of Slovenia claimed the bronze in 1:54.97, and China's Pang Jiaying thrilled the home fans by passing Katie Hoff of the U.S. on the final lap to take bronze in 1:55.05.

In the 200 individual medley, Australia's Stephanie Rice completed her IM sweep with another world record, her time of 2:08.45 erasing the mark of 2:08.92 set at the Australian trials in March.