Eight for Eight: Phelps Makes Olympic History

• Aug 17, 2008 01:10 PM ET
• by Richard1211

Usain Bolt was crowned the world's fastest man and Dara Torres picked up two more silver medals at age 41, but without a doubt the day belonged to Michael Phelps. The king of the Water Cube contributed a sizzling 50.15 butterfly split (history's fastest) to the U.S.'s world-record setting 4x100-meter medley relay, earning his eighth gold medal in Beijing and leaving Mark Spitz' venerable 1972 record in his proverbial wake. "The sport of swimming will never be the same," NBC's Rowdy Gaines said. "The name Michael Phelps will be synonymous with perfection."

As Phelps was quick to point out, don't forget the names of his teammates, either. Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen (salvaging an otherwise disappointing Olympics) and Jason Lezak, the hero of the 4x100 freestyle relay, swam the backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle legs, respectively. And as if feeling responsible for Phelps' historic run wasn't enough, Lezak jokingly told NBC's Andrea Kremer that he didn't want to let down Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, who were in attendance Sunday morning.

Over in the Bird's Nest, track and field's marquee event went to Jamaican youngster Bolt (who turns 22 on Aug. 21), looking completely relaxed as he blitzed the 100-meter dash field and broke his own world record with a blazing 9.69. What's scary is that he started celebrating at about the 85-meter mark, easily costing himself what likely would have been a mind-blowing time. NBC's Ato Boldon perfectly summed it by saying Bolt has "now gone into the realm of video game times." World champion Tyson Gay, clearly not recovered from an injury he suffered a the Olympic trials in July, didn't advance from the semifinals. The U.S. was represented on the podium, however, by Walter Dix, who took bronze in 9.91, behind Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago (9.89), the NCAA champion for LSU this spring. Truly an electrifying race, it's too bad NBC waited until 11:35 pm/ET to air it, more than 13 hours after it was run.

Five-time Olympian Torres was aiming to win her first individual gold medal, but came up one-hundreth of a second short of Germany's Britta Steffan in the 50-meter freestyle, 24.06-24.07. Both were under the Olympic record, and Torres lowered her own American best. "I think I probably shouldn't have filed my nails last night," she joked. Less than 40-minutes later she picked up her third silver of these Games (and 12th career medal) in the medley relay.

Compared to Torres, Constantina Tomescu-Dita is a relative youngster. The 38-year-old Romanian became the oldest Olympic marathon winner, breaking away from the field and clocking 2:26:44 for the 26.2-mile footrace. NBC's coverage opened prime-time with stunning visuals but surprisingly sparse commentary, with few updates on pace or position of top runners.