Eleven Gold Medals… and still going

I didn’t doubt it would happen. History was made last night. Michael Phelps won the 200m Butterfly in World Record time, and helped the US team win the 4×200 freestyle relay, earning him the 4th, and 5th Gold medals of the Beijing games, and his 10th, and 11th Golds overall.

Just…. wow. Seriously. Not only is he five for five, but he has won all his races in World Record time. That’s just mind blowing. The team finished the relay in under 7 minutes, something no team has ever done. Mighty impressive.

In his 200m Butterfly race, Michael’s goggles filled with water, making it nearly impossible for him to see, and couldn’t use his vision to judge the turns. He had to rely on his intuition of where the wall was, and in a post-race interview, he admitted being disappointed with his time. “I’m disappointed because I know I can go faster, but there was nothing I could do. I handled it the best way I could.” The instant the race ended, Michael took off his cap, and basically ripped off his goggles and threw them on the pool side, with a disgusted look on his face. After he got out of the pool, he told his coach “I can’t see anything”. Anyone who has gotten chlorine in their eyes, sure knows what that feels like. Ouch.

And yet, doesn’t it just prove that even with his eyes closed, Michael is far faster than anyone else in the world?

The silver medalist, Laszlo Cseh, was .67 seconds behind Michael, which is a pretty close second, especially when Michael is the one in the lead.

When asked about breaking the medal record, Michael said: “I’m almost at a loss for words, to be in the same group with the greatest Olympians who ever lived, to have the most golds in history is unbelievable.”

Still to come: the 200m individual medley Friday; the 100m butterfly Saturday; and the 4x100m medley relay on the final Sunday of the games.