Michael Phelps claims his place in history

One epic journey is over. Michael Phelps, the American, is the most successful Olympic athlete ever. With five golds here at the Water Cube so far, after victories in the 200 metres butterfly and the 4 x 200 metres freestyle with US teammates, Superfish now has a career 11 gold medals to his name, two more than Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish athlete, Soviet woman gymnast Larysa Latynina, and American icons Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis. Time to rocket off into orbit on his epic journey number two: Phelps is two targets shy of equalling Spitz's record of seven titles at one Games. That will not be quite Game Over: he want to win an eighth gold on Sunday morning with his US medley relay teammates.
The USA freestyle relay was the 16th world record at the Water Cube over five days of racing. Half-way through the Olympic programme, the tally of world records broken since the launch of the Speedo LZR Racer suit in February this year is 67, a world-record in itself. The previous record for global standards set in one year was 61, back in 1976. The current year count includes short-course standards. Even if you take those away, 47 long-course records have tumbled this year and the 1976 record could come under threat by Sunday morning. There are then five months of the year left. The 1976 surge came down to two factors: the use of goggles (swimmers could see where they were going) and doping, as the German democratic Republic set about rewriting the women's record books on a diet of Oral Turinabol, an anabolic steroid.
For Phelps, records are part of the measure of his worth too. so, far, he has set a world record in every final he has won. Just like Spitz. In the butterfly it was 1:52.03, in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay it was 6:58.56. In the 200 metres butterfly, Phelps's rivals were nearer than he is used too: silver went to Laszlo Cseh of Hungary in 1:52.70 and bronze to Takeshi Matsuda of Japan in 1:52.97.
Before Beijing, only Phelps had cracked 1:54. Now three are below 1:53 and four others in the final swam inside 1:55. Phelps might have gone inside 1:52 had he not proved that things can go wrong even for the greatest of greats: his goggles filled up with water. "I couldn't see anything for the last 100, my goggles pretty much filled up with water, it just kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls to be honest. But it's fine, I wanted to break the record. I wanted to go 1:51 or better but for the circumstances, I guess it's not too bad."
The session started with a world record of 47.20 for European champion Alain Bernard of France in the first semi-final of the 100 metres freestyle. Less than five minutes later, Eamon Sullivan, the Australian, who claimed the global standard from Bernard on Monday by leading off the the Australian sprint relay in 47.24, snatched the record back in 47.05. It was as if Sullivan was returning a thrusting blade to Bernard: take that, that's sprinting. More than 20lbs lighter than the Frenchman Sullivan appears to surf at the the surface, arms high wheeling.
In the second final, Federica Pellegrini, the Italian, showed that she had learned her lesson well. Having made the mistake of making a slow start in the 400m free final and paying the price in a race won by Britain's Rebecca Adlington, Pellegrini attacked the 200 metres freestyle final as though she were the advertising face of Vesuvius. Out in 55.92, 1.12sec inside world-record pace, the Italian kept up the pressure on the third length as Sara Isakovic of Slovenia, Katie Hoff, the American and China's Jiaying Pang made their move. Out of the turn, the Italian sensed that Isakovic was coming back at her big time. But determination made her dig deeper. The result, a world record of 1:54.82, with Isakovic on 1:54.97 and Pang taking bronze in 1:55.02.
Stephanie Rice of Australia added to the bull run on records with a 2:08.45 global standard to take her second gold medal of the Games, 0.14sec ahead of Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.
At half-way through the programme here at the Water Cube, it was time for Britain to reflect on its place in a world that never sleeps in terms of progress: 17 British records have tumbled but in many cases those have left the national team no closer to the podium than it has been for the past few years.
In the 200m butterfly semi-finals, Jemma Lowe learned a valuable lesson in pacing on the journey to London 2012. She turned at half-way on world record pace, at 59.97, and was still leading with 15m to go. It was then time to pay the price for that blistering start and in the closing metres she was overhauled by two rivals, her 2:07.87 finish keeping her out of the final by 0.14sec. "I went out hard and gave it my best shot which was the plan but found it difficult to carry it through. I paid for the early pace but I knew it would take a fast time to make the final." Lowe has much to look forward to: she will race in a medley relay on Sunday that has every chance of reaching the podium, before the journey to London 2012 continues. Her teammate Ellen Gandy finished 15th in 2:10.60.
In the 200m breaststroke semi-finals, defending champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan set an Olympic record of 2:08.61. Only 2.66sec back was Britain's Kristopher Gilchrist in a British record of 2:10.27. But 11 men swam in the middle of those times. "I felt really good this morning so I'm disappointed. I wasn't able to go one step further and make the final. I had nothing left at the end but I could have increased my stroke rate over the last 50m for a sub 2:10.00 time," said Gilchrist. "It's been an interesting experience and I've learnt a lot but now I'll go back home, sit with my coach and figure how I can drop my times further. This event has moved on so much and I want to be a part of it."
Understanding is one thing, doing is another. Two years ago, Caitlin McClatchey was a Commonwealth champion in the 200m freestyle. Last year, she watched a new generation take the event on with the first sub 1min 56sec efforts. Since then bodysuit technology has driven a fresh assault on standards in the pool. In the 200m freestyle final of women take the In the 200m freestyle final, McClatchey finished sixth in 1:57.65, 2.6sec away from the podium and slower than the time in which she claimed the Commonwealth crown in 2006. She will need much more than that if Britain is to have a hope of reaching the podium in the 4x200m freestyle tomorrow.
The session closed with a British record of 7:05.92 for David Carry, Andrew Hunter, Robbie Renwick and Ross Davenport in the 4x200m freestyle. "The plan was to swim as fast as possible which we did and we've managed to raise our game again which is good. We have been on a fantastic journey over the past few years and it's been a privilege to work with these guys," said Carry. Davenport added: "We thought we could do it [win a medal], we believed we could do so it's a bit devastating but we have lowered the GB record here by something like 6 seconds and we are a young team."
Breaking records by 6sec is almost irrelevant in these waters. The fact is that a year ago, before the launch of the latest generation of bodysuits, Britain set a national record of 7:11 and the USA a world record of 7:03. Then, the gulf between those teams was 8.04sec. Now it is 8.60sec. In a technology-charged era, the gap is the better measure of progress than records.
200m butterfly: 1. Michael Phelps (USA) 1:52.03 (WR); 2. Laszlo Cseh (HUN) 1:52.70; 3. Takeshi Matsuda (JPN) 1:52.97; 4. Moss Burmester (NZL) 1:54.35; 4. Wu Peng (CHN) 1:54.35; 6. Pawel Korzeniowski (POL) 1:54.60; 7. Kaio Almeida (BRA) 1:54.71; 8. Nikolay Skvortsov (RUS) 1:55.14.
4x200m freestyle relay: 1. USA 6:58.56 (WR); 2. Russia 7:03.70; 3. Australia 7:04.98; 4. Italy 7:05.35; 5. Canada 7:05.77; 6. Great Britain 7:05.92; 7. Japan 7:10.31; 8. South Africa 7:13.02.