At 10:03 a.m., Phelps and his competitors dived into the pool at the Water Cube, and 4 minutes and 3.84 seconds later it was over. The morning after Phelps set an Olympic record in this event with a heat time of 4:07.82, a record that he said surprised even himself, he started his own countdown.
One gold down, seven more to go, for an unprecedented total of eight. At 23, Phelps has been a household name in his sport for years, breaking through on the Olympic stage four years ago in Athens. He arrived in Beijing with a shot at breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Games.
Whenever he was asked last week about his bid to win eight gold medals, Phelps shrugged it off by saying that was a news media invention and not his stated intention.
"I'm just going to go out there," he said, "and do the best I can."
Phelps's biggest competition heading into the 400 I.M. appeared to be Ryan Lochte, his teammate. Lochte turned in a slower time in the preliminaries, but still turned up in the final after pushing Phelps in the U.S. Olympic trials. Hungary's Laszlo Cseh won the silver medal and Lochte won the bronze.
This race marked the first morning medal test for swimmers.
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- groups:
- Sports
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- tags:
- Sports, US, 2008 Beijing Olympics, World Record, 2 more + add
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- Sons_Of_Liberty
- added this
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This dude is ridiculous with the Gold Medals... Props to him...
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Michael Phelps is the man to watch in Beijing! Only 7 more gold medals to go.
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Phelps is a beast!
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Congratulations!
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- Midnight_DevilX
- 1 year ago
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He performed swimmingly. :p
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Five more to go and he will become the most decorated Olympic athlete ever!
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I won $20 bucks! Thanks Phelps!
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idk ,,, i mean phelps is AMAZING.. but its like he doesnt get challenged enough... its just like everythings too easy for him.... im envious
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It's never easy. He practices hard. If you do your work and love it then you'll succeed....even if you don't win a lot of "gold" you still are proud for doing your best. That is what he told the media...that it was not him who created the go for 8 golds idea. He just wants to go out and do the best he can.
And boy is he.
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he is good, but don't jynx this guy with all the post and all the media attention about winning all the gold medals. Let him do it first then talk.
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true dat jjamer
