Olympics: 3 down, 5 gold medals to go for swim sensation Michael Phelps

United States' Michael Phelps celebrates setting a new world record as he wins the gold medal in the men's 200-meter freestyle.

BEIJING - It was the race that derailed Michael Phelps in his bid for immortality four years ago.
This time, though, he owned it.
Swimming the third of his planned eight finals at the Beijing Olympics, the superstar blew away his competition in the 200-meter freestyle on Tuesday morning at the Water Cube, winning in world-record time once again and moving inexorably closer to breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.
"I couldn't ask for anything else, so far,"
he said.
Phelps now has three gold medals and three world records here, equaling

the record of nine career Olympic golds after tearing nearly a second off the previous 200 freestyle record he
set at the world championships last year. He led from the moment he hit the water to roaring cheers, surfacing long after the rest of the field and powering his way to another victory.
"I wanted to try and get out into open water," he said, "and I was in the outside lane, so it was kind of difficult for the others to see me. I just wanted to get out there and try to hold on."
Try to hold on?
Phelps was under world-record pace all the way, finishing in 1 minute, 42.96 seconds and beating Korean silver medalist Park Taehwan by nearly two full seconds - an eternity in swimming. Park finished in 1:44.85, with American

Peter Vanderkaay in third at 1:45.14. Phelps was so dominating that a Korean reporter asked in the post-race press conference if there is anybody "in this planet" who can beat him.
"It's an honor to swim with that guy," South Africa's Jean Basson said after finishing fourth. "You just look at him in awe. To say you swim with him is amazing. . . . I have never seen an athlete like him before."
His domination was hardly unexpected; Phelps entered the race with by far the fastest time of the year.
But the 200 freestyle is the event in which he earned only bronze at the 2004 Athens Games behind Australia's Ian Thorpe and the Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband. He acknowledged being motivated by that defeat, and avenging the loss clears the way for his continued pursuit of Spitz, who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games.
Not that he wanted to talk about that, though.
"I take one race at a time," he said, laughing off another question about his record pursuit. "That's the only thing I can do right now. Two possible relays coming up and still seven more individual swims, the only thing I can do is take one race at a time."
Especially because the next test might be among his toughest.
For the only time, Phelps must swim two finals on Wednesday, in the 200 butterfly that he is expected to dominate - he's the defending world and Olympic champion, as well as the longtime world-record holder - and the 4x200 freestyle relay. It's his busiest day within a schedule that has him perpetually trying to eat and sleep whenever he can in order to recover from his seemingly endless run of races.
"I've been eating a lot of pizza and pasta," he said. "A lot of carbs."

Five athletes with nine golds
Athlete Nation Sport Years
Paavo Nurmi Finland Track & Field 1920-28
Larissa Latynina Soviet Union Gymnastics 1956-64
Mark Spitz United States Swimming 1968-72
Carl Lewis United States Track & Field 1984-96
Michael Phelps United States Swimming 2004-08

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/