The Phelps Watch

Chad Klassen
Love of Sports Correspondent

When a world class athlete like Michael Phelps continues to put on dazzling performances, you start to run out of superlatives to describe his dominance and brilliance.

Phelps swam himself closer to the mark of eight gold medals Tuesday night with another pair of great swims in the 200-meter butterfly and the 4x200 freestyle relay, breaking two more world records, including a mark as a member of the relay team that broke the previous record by almost five seconds!

To date, the American phenom has now set a world record in each of his five races, another goal he’s set for himself as he tries to swim into the history books past Mark Spitz, who actually broke world records in each of his seven gold medals as well.

The victories marked his 10th and 11th overall Olympic gold medals, putting Phelps on top of the all-time list and putting his name up with the greatest Olympians ever.

In his first race, he was given a serious challenge from the start by New Zealand swimmer Moss Burmester, who was looking to steal the American’s thunder, going toe-to-toe with Phelps and actually leading the race by 0.03 seconds at the 50-meter mark.

But Burmester faded down the stretch, swimming himself out of medal contention. While Phelps was pushed by Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda – the silver and bronze medalists in the event – the Baltimore native put it in another gear to pull away from the field before touching in a time of 1:52.03 to grab his fourth gold.

Interestingly, despite his fourth win of the Olympics, he looked upset with his performance following the race, angrily tossing his cap and goggles aside. We found out afterwards that his goggles had become loose right from the start and continued to fill up with water the further along the race went. He was able to shake it off and continue, but it’s this kind of perfectionist outlook – combined with his sheer natural ability – that makes him the best in the world.

He followed that up only an hour later inside the Water Cube, with another gold medal in the relay. Unlike the 4x100 race that came down to the wire and forced the Americans to come from behind, this one was never in question.

Phelps, again leading off for the Americans, gave the U.S. a commanding advantage with an overpowering first leg and basically secured the victory from the outset.

Ryan Lochte began his swim with a full two second lead thanks to Phelps. Each swimmer afterwards increasingly upped the lead before Peter Vanderkaay touched the wall in world-record time of 6:58.56, nearly five seconds ahead of their previous record of 7:03.24 and the first team ever to best the seven-minute mark.

Before the Games kicked off, I stressed the importance of his American teammates in his quest for eight gold medals. Through two of the relay races, they’ve come through in fine fashion and got the job done, especially Jason Lezak in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

Phelps will compete three more times before the swimming events conclude on Saturday, with the American favored in every race, including his next one: the 200-meter IM. The preliminary heats take place tomorrow morning before the final unfolds on Thursday evening.