Michael Phelps Wins His 9th Gold Medal

Welp, he did it again … Michael Phelps won his 3rd Gold Medal of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China in the Men’s 200-meter freestyle event last night (today?) … and his 9th career Gold Medal overall — and he, yet again, won his event in record time. He is now tied with Olympic greats Larisa Latynina, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Mark Spitz as the athletes with the most Gold Medals. Later on today (tomorrow?), Phelps will compete for his 10th overall career Gold Medal … and something tells me, he’s gonna get it:

He cuts through the water like he’s shredding through the record books at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his third gold medal and record-tying ninth of his career on Tuesday morning, breaking his own world record in the 200-meter freestyle. The American won in a time of 1 minute, 42.96 seconds, lowering his old mark of 1:43.86 set at last year’s world championships in Australia. It was expected he would face a strong challenge for the gold from the other finalists, but he led from the start, cruising to the wall nearly 2 seconds ahead of silver medallist Park Tae-hwan of South Korea, who finished in 1:44.85. American Peter Vanderkaay earned the bronze in 1:45.14. Phelps already has nine career gold medals, tying him with four others, including swimmer Mark Spitz and track star Carl Lewis, for the most in Olympics history. He’s got five more chances for gold in Beijing — the next one comes Wednesday. And he’s just 23 … Phelps finds himself on the verge of diving into history. He has the opportunity to break the Olympics’ most hallowed record and eclipse Marc Spitz’s seven gold medals in the 1972 games. Even if he gets gold in just half of the eight events he has entered, Phelps will hold the record for the most gold medals in Olympic history and could arguably be called the greatest Olympian ever. “There are a lot of things that people haven’t done, and I want to change the sport and be the first person to do new things,” Phelps said.

Oh yeah, he is right on track to do just that. I am just amazed by his accomplishments. He shows no sign of stopping or even slowing down … in fact, he just keeps getting faster and faster. I have no doubt that he will walk away from these Olympic Games with the most Gold Medals won by a single athlete and he has a great chance to beat Mark Spitz’s record of winning the most Gold Medals at a single Olympic Games. Phelps just looks so focused, relaxed and happy … and I think it’s that joy of competition that keeps fueling him that extra bit at each event that is allowing him to not only win but to win in record time (just like Spitz did in 1972, who won each of his 7 Gold Medals each in record time). Will Michael Phelps win 8 Gold Medals in record time in Beijing? I think it’s quite possible … it’ll be fun to watch and see. Go Phelpsie!