Michael Phelps by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Michael Phelps made history Saturday morning Friday night in the US in dramatic fashion coming from way back to out-touch Serbian Milorad Cavic for gold in the 100-meter butterfly With Cavics fingertips seemingly millimeters away from the wall Phelps final stroke whipped around and the man with the magic as NBCs Rowdy Gaines called him did it again Phelps clocked in with an Olympic record and personal best 5058 one-hundreth of a second ahead of Cavic It was Phelps first gold of the Games that didnt come with a world record but it seemed to be the one he savored the mostThe Baltimore native now has seven victories in Beijing tying Mark Spitz 36-year-old Olympic record for most gold medals in a single Games This is taking on the feeling of a coronation rather than a competition studio host Bob Costas noted Later in a thee-way interview with Costas and Spitz via remote from the States Phelps said Im just happy
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Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Yang Yillin by Jeff Gross/Getty Images Sport
Nastia Liuikin and Ryan Lochte are both world champion athletes who have long lived in the shadows of their more decorated teammates Thursday night Friday morning in Beijing they finally stepped out of the shadows on the worlds biggest stage Liukin captured the womens gymnastics individual all-around title over Shawn Johnson and Lochte upset defending Olympic champion Aaron Perisol in the 200-meter backstrokeThe Russian-bornTexas-raised Liukin was near flawless at the National Indoor Stadium compiling 63325 points in an event NBCs gymnastics narrator Al Trautwig called an individual medley of sorts that Michael Phelps cannot do Johnson the 2007 world champion had a few wobbles including another crossover step on her vault landing and collected 62725 points just edging out bronze-medalist Yang Lilin of China with 62650Because the event ended so late just before 1 amET NBC will air a special recap on Friday night during
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Michael Phelps by Robert B. Stanton/WireImage.com
Though all sorts of athletes shined last night, the star of the evening was none other than USA's own Michael Phelps. Despite a pair of leaky goggles, the swimming sensation nabbed two more gold medals last night — the tenth and eleventh of his career — making him the winningest Olympian in history and, as the Nation Aquatics Center announcer declared, "arguably the greatest Olympian of all time." Watch the video! | More online videos
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China's Deng Linlin competes on the floor during the women's team final. Photo by Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images
Nothing cutens up a country like panda bears Mary Carillo told Bob Costas on Tuesday during her nightly feature on Chinese culture Panda bears and teenage gymnasts that is As the Americans faltered you had to admire the way the Chinese kids hung tough and wowed the home crowd in the womens team final Their ages may be in question but their abilities were not as they scored a dominating 188900186525 win over the US The barely mentioned Romanians took bronze well back in 181525The US women with the exception of Shawn Johnson who NBCs Tim Daggett called monster tough have looked like deer in headlights all week Daggett seemed downright disgusted with their performances and as the defending world champions their silver medal is a bit of a disappointment Compare that to the fanfare surrounding the mens bronze a day earlierOf course the star of the night was once again Michael Phelps who won two more events becoming
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Jonathan Horton of the US competes on the rings by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Silver is beautiful Matt Grevers told NBCs Andrea Kremer shortly after finishing second to US teammate Aaron Peirsol in the 100-meter backstroke on Monday night Tuesday morning in Beijing A little more than two hours later at 1240 amET the US mens gymnastics team showed that in some cases bronze might even be better The scrappy Hamm-less squad performed out of their collective heads save for two disastrous pommel horse routines to finish an unexpected third 125 points ahead of Germany China won gold as expected and the Japanese came from behind to take silverHouston native Jonathan Horton led the team performing cleanly on his five apparatuses nailing his landings as if the soles of his feet were dipped in glue NBCs Tim Daggett described Hortons performances as fairytale good and MVP times 10 Huddled with his teammates before the final scores were revealed he told them This is the mo
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Jason Lezak by Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Michael Phelps wasnt the hero of the American relay victory on Sunday nights telecast of the Olympics but his over-the-top reaction showed how important that win was Jason Lezaks sensational anchor leg in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay gave the US its first gold in the event since 1996 It also kept hope alive for Phelps quest to break Mark Spitz record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics Hes 2-for-2 so far with six events to goBut the performance of the night or the morning since the race went off at 1126 am Beijing time belonged to Lezak The Irvine Calif native clocked a 4606 split the fastest ever and closed down on Frances former world-record holder Alain Bernard That was especially satisfying since Bernard had predicted that France would smash the Americans in the race Lezaks triumph was especially significant since he swam on the bronze and silver teams from the last two Games the only
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Garrett Weber-Gale and Michael Phelps of the United States celebrate. Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Shouting at the TV can be good for you. It’s cathartic. I do it all the time. “Making noise,” as I like to call it, happens a lot while watching favorite shows that either shock or delight, anger or frustrate. I had a very noisy night watching Sunday’s prime-time Olympics coverage.Ups and downs (the U.S. women’s—or is that girls’—gymnastic team’s rocky qualifying performance), twists and turns, a moment of crushing disappointment (swimmer Katie Hoff just missing a gold in the 400 freestyle by a touch) chased by an historic moment of absolute triumph (the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay). It was that kind of night.Even the most sedate coach potatoes had to rouse themselves for the freestyle relay late in NBC’s prime-time telecast. It was immediately being heralded, by the announcers and later studio host Bob Costas, as the best of its sort ever seen, as the top five teams in the race shattered the former world record time. It w...
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Michael Phelps by Al Bello/Getty Images
One down seven to goThe first gold medal is always the hardest or so Ive heard Michael Phelps must be breathing a sigh of relief if he has time to pause that is between his grueling schedule of heats and races after smashing his own world and Olympic records with a time of 40384 in the mens 400-meter individual medley to take gold His teammate Ryan Lochte earned bronzeThe day started out on a note of tragedy In what appears to be a random act of violence a Chinese man attacked family members of a US volleyball coach at the Drum Tower a popular Beijing tourist attraction Todd Bachman the father-in-law of mens indoor volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon was killed and his wife Barbara was seriously injured The couples tour guide was also wounded in the attack The Bachmans daughter Elisabeth McCutcheons wife was with her parents at the time but did not sustain injuries The mens volleyball team led by assistant coach Ron Larsen in McCutc
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Michael Phelps by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
Here we go again Michael Phelps perhaps youve heard of him is swimming eight events at these Games and will get a 1 million bonus from Speedo if he matches Mark Spitzs 1972 record of seven gold medalsjust like four years agoPhelps narrowly missed that bonus winning six golds and two bronzes in Athens Since then hes only gotten stronger and faster He won seven events at last years world championships in Melbourne setting five world records in the process and would have gone for eight if the US medley relay team hadnt been disqualified in the preliminariesThe Baltimore natives first final the 400-meter individual medley airs live Saturday night right around 10 pmET Sunday morning in Beijing He is world-record holder and defending Olympic champion in the event which consists of two pool lengths each of butterfly backstroke breaststroke and freestyle NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines says this will be the key ra
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Selection for teams in two of Americas best Olympic sports gets underway this weekend The US Olympic Team Trials in track and field begin Friday in Eugene Oregon with the top three finishers in each event qualifying for the squad Swimming starts Sunday in Omaha Nebraska The top two in each event are bound for BeijingTrack gets underway Friday The only final is the womens 10000-meter run which should be a match race between Shalane Flanagan who set an American record in May and Kara Goucher the bronze medalist at the 2007 world championships The first two rounds of the womens 100-meter dash are Friday with the semifinals and finals on Saturday The field is extremely competitive including Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams the 2003 and 2005 world champions respectively Allyson Felix two-time world champion in the 200 Angela Williams the world indoor champion at 60 meters and up-and-comers Marshevet Hooker and Muna Lee who have showed great f
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