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US’ Phelps makes history with eighth Olympic gold

US men’s 4X100m medley relay team members (front to back) Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak celebrate their gold medal world record of 3:29.34 yesterday in Beijing, allowing Phelps to claim his eighth gold medal in a single Olympics to surpass Mark Spitz’s 1972 Munich games record of seven. PHOTO: EPA

Michael Phelps completed his stunning display of swimming supremacy with an historic eighth gold medal at the Beijing Games yesterday and said his every Olympic aim was achieved.

“Everything was accomplished,” Phelps said. “Doing all best times, winning every race.”

It was a feat that many believed couldn’t be done and he did it in emphatic style.

Seven of Phelps’ eight golds were won in world-record time.

The only exception was the 100m butterfly, won in a personal best of 50.58 seconds that was just one one-hundredth of a second in front of Serbian Milorad Cavic.

Along the way to surpassing Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven golds at one Games, Phelps scaled the summit of Olympic achievement, matching and then surging past the record nine career gold medals of Games icons Spitz, Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis and Larysa Latynina.

But the dream, Phelps said, wasn’t just about individual glory, but about changing the face of swimming forever.

“It’s fun,” Phelps said. “From here it is a continuation with my goal of raising the sport of swimming as high as I can in the US ... 70,000 fans will be watching the relay at the [NFL] Ravens game tonight [the team based in his home town of Baltimore] and it has been shown at sports events across the country.”

“I have heard people say it’s crazy, they are out to dinner and swimming is on the television,” he said. “For me, it’s still work in progress.”

Phelps had a narrow escape in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Phelps led off the US challenge with a personal best time, but anchor Jason Lezak trailed French sprint star Alain Bernard at the final turn and only sealed the win by a fingertip.

Also See: SWIMMING: Torres adds two more silver to her Olympic collection
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