The “Baltimore Bullet” Michael Phelps on August 13 became the all time greatest Olympian by winning 11 gold medals including five gold in the ongoing Beijing Olympics 2008.
Today morning, he broke the overall Olympic record when he marked his 10th gold medal, 4th in Beijing Olympic in the 200 meters butterfly in pool surpassing US former swim sensation Mark Spitz, one of greatest athlete on track Carl Lewis, one of the greatest long distance athlete of Finland Paavo Nurmi and Russian gymnast Larysa Latynina, all won 9 gold medal in different Olympic events.
Phelps, after creating a history in Olympic and making a world record in 200m butterfly individual pool race, added another gold medal by winning 4*200m freestyle relay race with team-mates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay in just 6:58.56, shaving unbelievable 4.68 seconds off the previous one, in which Phelps played a crucial role by initiating the race and soon taking big leap from the nearest contestant.
The US team was not in the condition of getting any challenge as its nearest rival Russian who were far behind form them who silver by beating Australian that claimed bronze medal.
Earlier, in the history-making contest, the 23-year old American registered golden moments in US Olympic history when he broke his own world record in 200-metres butterfly individual race and won his 10th gold medal. He finished the lap in just 1:52.03 breaking his own previous record by 0.06 seconds. Hungarian Laszlo Cseh won silver while Japanese Takeshi Matsuda sealed bronze.
Michael Phelps in his amazing career has won 11 gold medals so far in the most popular and biggest sporting events and targeting to win more to secure his position in the Olympic history. He is also eyeing to break the record of famous and one of the best swimmers Mark Spitz (USA) who had won seven medals in Munich Olympic in 1972 and by Ray Ewry (USA) who won eight Olympic Gold medals in Athletics in Individual events between 1900 and 1908. Phelps has collected seven gold so far in the individual events while Beijing Olympic is still live.
So far, Russian all time greatest gymnast Larysa Latynina had won the highest 18 medals in Olympic events and it might be a hard nut to crack for anyone.
In Beijing Olympic, Phelps has won five gold- first in 400m medley, second in 4*100m freestyle relay, third 200m freestyle including today’s two gold.
Phelps was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 30, 1985, and began swimming at the age of seven. In 2000 Sydney Olympic, Phelps became the youngest contestant since 1932 when he participated in 200m butterfly and got fifth place.
In Spring Nationals in the United States on 2001 he became the youngest man ever to break a world record in swimming, at the age of 15 years and 9 months. He also became the first swimmer in history to break five individual world records at one meet in 2003 World Championships in Barcelona. He has been honoured by Sullivan Award in 2003 as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
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