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 4×100m 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 were rewarded for their 40 billion dollar investment in staging the Games when, with still a week of competition remaining, they equalled their previous best Olympic performance of 32 titles in Athens four years ago.
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.
Jamaica are looking for a sprint double with Kerron Stewart defeating American Torri Edwards when they clashed in the semifinals while defending champion Yuliya Nesterenko was of Belarus was eliminated.
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 4×100m 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.
On the eve of becoming world tennis number one, Spain’s Rafael Nadal thrashed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez to claim the mens’s singles title in straight sets.
Elena Dementieva came from a set down to beat Dinara Safina in an all-Russian women’s final and the Williams sisters Serena and Venus won the women’s doubles to repeat their success in Sydney eight years ago.
China continue to dominate gymnastics with winning three of the four finals Sunday to give them six golds out of eight events.
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.
British men also beat their own team pursuit world record in booking their place against Denmark in Monday’s final.
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.
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