News and Politics | August 16, 2008 | 26 comments

Its official: Phelps wins 8th gold in Beijing!

source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/how-to-watch-michael-phelps-win-his-8th-gold-live-at-the-...

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edbr
BEIJING (Reuters) - Michael Phelps took a record-breaking eighth gold at one Games on Sunday in Beijing to beat fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven from Munich 1972.

Phelps hugged his team mates in celebration after a comfortable men’s 4x100 meters medley relay win contrasting with the finger-tip, split-second finishes that came in two of his earlier Beijing golds.

His 14 golds, which include six in Athens, make him the most successful Olympian of the modern era by a big margin of five.

With Games spectators still agog at Usain Bolt’s audaciously brilliant 100m win in the blue riband athletics race on Saturday night, the first gold of Day Nine went to Romania.

Constantina Tomescu had time to relax and wave at the crowd before crossing the finish line in the Bird’s Nest stadium after a marathon run that began in Tiananmen Square.

Catherine Ndereba of Kenya took silver and Zhou Chunxiu of China the bronze, with Britain’s world record holder Paula Radcliffe struggling for fitness and well back.

In the highest-profile doping case yet of the August 8-24 Games, Greece’s defending women’s 400 meters hurdles champion Fani Halkia failed a drug test hours before she was to compete.

That recalled the doping sagas that darkened Athens 2004.

But it has been the scintillating sport, not scandals, in Beijing dominating attention and relegating the pre-Games focus on China’s rights record and pollution problems.

Having passed Spitz’s seven golds of 36 years ago, the 23-year-old Phelps now stands alone in the record books.

Blessed with an arm span bigger than his height, Phelps has pumped himself up with hip-hop before races and always looks for his mother in the stands at moments of triumph.

He is guaranteed a lifetime of multi-million corporate deals.

But Phelps has failed to match Spitz in one aspect. His 100m butterfly gold on Saturday was not in a world record time, unlike his other seven wins in Beijing.

All seven of Spitz’s medals came in world record times.
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26 comments // Its official: Phelps wins 8th gold in Beijing!

  • determined08
    • 0
      determined08  

    • Well, at least he TIED Spitz in that final aspect. I had heard that Spitz was not very gracious in interviews before that one via satellite, but in that one he seemed overly so, almost as if it was scripted.... hmmm..... but go Amurrica!

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • determined08:

      He is annoyed that he was not invited to the games to watch Phelps break his records. He knew he would....but I can understand his bitterness of having the records and not being able to enjoy them being broken by actually seeing it happen in real time in China.

    • 3 years ago
  • Jenkins
    • 0
      Jenkins  

    • Funny you would mention hip-hop considering that is what he listens to before races in his I pod. Lol. But I highly doubt he is done competing.

    • 3 years ago
  • RudyRudell
  • getcnn
    • 0
      getcnn  

    • So now after all of that chlorine in your bloodstream and you're rich, go do something that the other athletes usually don't do to make some societal impact. Do something, anything, other than getting a crib for MTV, an Escalade, and don't start talking in hip-hop lingo to be cool..Just stay humble and watch out for the vulture friends who will come out of the wood works..
      Great job...

    • 3 years ago
  • schimmerman
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • schimmerman:

      he broke 7 of 8 world and 8 of 8 personal records. he won 8 gold medals, which beats a record held since 1974, a full 34 years.

      from above, "His 14 golds, which include six in Athens, make him the most successful Olympian of the modern era by a big margin of five."

      that's being freakin' good at what you do.

    • 3 years ago
  • GLiz
    • 0
      GLiz  

    • Phelps is truly out of this world. He has shown that anything can be achieve with hardwork and dedication. There are no shortcuts to sucess.

    • 3 years ago
  • MajorMajorMajorMajor
  • J_Jammer
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • Image

    • it is quite clear, looking side-by-side, that phelps got it.

      the key is that cavic, his opponent, had no forward momentum, where phelps was moving forward fast and snaps his arms into the wall.

      this is a studied, tried and true technique for swimmers to gain those last 1 or 2 100ths of a second.

      in fact, the serbians protested the win, but conceded after viewing the slow-mo images. phelps also won the 100m fly very similarly in the 04 games.

    • 3 years ago
  • devo64
    • 0
      devo64  
    • Image

    • Did Michael Phelps actually lose the 100M butterfly final? Or did he deserve his (briefly contested) seventh gold medal in the 2008 Olympics? An anonymous writer at 001ofasecond.com claims Phelps benefited from an Olympic conspiracy because the event’s official timekeeper, Omega, is a Phelps sponsor. The theory is written in delightfully broken English and peppered with ad hominem attacks.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • devo64:

      From what I read they replayed it in slow motion and all the officials agreed that he touched first.

      Nice picture...who is to say that's from the actual event and not from another event just to play up the conspiracy?

    • 3 years ago
  • devo64
    • 0
      devo64  
    • devo64:

      Good point. From the images I saw on other web sites (BBC, Google News, and by typing 'Phelps 7th gold' into Google Images) it's from the same race.

      The theorist apparently has a bone to pick with someone. Rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim he's content with ranting. But all that aside, from a companies point of view wouldn't you rather have your spokesperson breaking as many records as possible?

    • 3 years ago
  • Jenkins
    • 0
      Jenkins  
    • devo64:

      The other swimmers coach appealed and lost, it was clear to them that Phelps touched first. And yes, that picture was from that race, his finish was amazing.

    • 3 years ago
  • aburninggiraffe
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • Image

    • "It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time," Mark Spitz said of Michael Phelps. "He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet."

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • edbr
  • Jenkins
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • edbr:

      "Epic," Spitz said Saturday morning when reached by The Associated Press in Detroit, where his youngest son was playing in a basketball tournament.

      yes, live, via satellite.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • FallenMorgan
  • edbr
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  

    • isn't it great that this incredible olympian is also such an incredibly grateful, humble human being!

      he is always so quick to point out those who have contributed to his success.

    • 3 years ago
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