Olympics 2008 News
Phelps joins list of top Olympians with world record (Urgent)
Aug 12, 2008, 2:25 GMT
Beijing - Michael Phelps on Tuesday joined the list of most successful Olympian athletes in the history of the games as he broke the world record in the men's 200m freestyle to win his third gold medal of these games and his ninth gold medal overall.
The American swimming superstar won the event with a time of 1 minute 42.96 seconds, beating South Korean Park Tae Hwan (1:44.85) and American Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.14) into second place.
Phelps beat his own world record of 1:43.86 that he established at the world championships in Melbourne last year.
Phelps joins Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finish athlete Paavo Nurmi, US swimmer Mark Spitz and US athlete Carl Lewis on nine gold medals.
The 23-year-old, who also has two bronze medals from the Athens Olympic Games, is going for an unprecedented eight gold medals in Beijing.
He needs just one more gold medal from five events to become the all-time record holder in gold medals at the Olympic Games.
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