Michael Phelps received a foretelling text message prior to making history by winning an eighth gold medal on Saturday night.
“It’s time to be the best ever.”
And time was again on Phelps’ side, as the U.S. 400-meter medley relay team cruised to first place with a win over Australia. The Rodgers Forge resident’s eighth gold medal in as many days surpasses swimmer Mark Spitz’s record of seven at the 1972 Munich Games.
“I don’t even know what to feel right now,” Phelps told reporters moments after the race. “There’s so much emotion going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom.”
He did.
After receiving his gold medal, Phelps made his way over to his mother, Debbie, and sisters Hilary and Whitney in the stands, giving them each a kiss and a hug.
Phelps deserved the rest. The 23-year-old who earned six golds and a pair of bronze medals at the Athens Games in 2004 was even better in Beijing. He set individual world records in the 200-meter freestyle (1:42.96), 200-meter butterfly (1:52.03), 200-meter individual medley (1:54.23) and the 400-meter individual medley (4:03.84). In relays, his teams set the gold standard in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay (3:08.24), the 4×200-meter freestyle relay (6:58.56) and the 4×100-meter medley relay (3:30.04).
The only race he failed to set a world record in — the 100-meter butterfly — he set a new personal best in 50.58, which was one-hundreth of a second better than Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.
“Nothing is impossible,” Phelps said. “With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that’s something I learned and something that helped me.”
But impossible has become the routine for Phelps.
“The Beijing Olympics has witnessed the greatest Olympian of all time,” the public address announcer at the Water Cube said after the feat, “Michael Phelps of the U.S.A.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
