Michael Phelps most successful Olympian with 200m butterfly gold

By Peter Auf der Heyde Aug 13, 2008, 2:44 GMT

Beijing - Michael Phelps of United States on Wednesday won the 200 metres butterfly swimming gold medal and with it became the most successful athlete in Olympic history with 10 golds overall.

Phelps showed not a hint of emotion after a world record 1 minute 52.03 performance on another remarkable day at the pool which saw four world records in as many races halfway through the session in the Water Cube.

Phelps' 10th gold medal lifted him to the top of the all-time list, past Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, US swimmer Mark Spitz and US athlete Carl Lewis, who have nine gold medals each.

Phelps won six golds 2004 in Athens and has four golds in Beijing from as many races contested there up to the 200m flyy. He is set to compete in four more races at the Games eyeing an unprecedented eight golds at one Games.

Phelps' 1::52.03 seconds was six hundredths faster then the 1:52.09 he swam at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne. Lazslo Cseh of Hungary took silver in 1:52.70 and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan got bronze in 1:52.97 minutes.

There was no outburst of joy at all from Phelps after the historic moment. He waved just once as he left the pool area.

The US star has won all four golds in world record time and was due to be in the 4x200m freestyle relay later on Wednesday, on the agenda along with the women's 200m medley.

A few minutes earlier, Francesca Pelligrini of Italy smashed her 200 metres freestyle world record to get the gold in 1:54.82 minutes.

Silver medallist Sara Isakovic of Slovenia (1:54.97) and bronze medallist Pang Jiaying of China (1:55.05) were also faster than the previous world record of 1:55.45 Pellegrini recorded on Monday in the Olympic heats.

The 100m freestyle was lowered for the second and third time in 48 hours in the semi-finals.

Alain Bernard of France bettered Eamon Sullivan's mark of 47.24 seconds from Monday in the first semi-final to 47.20, but the Aussie Sullivan got it right back in the next race with 47.05 seconds.

Sullivan clocked 47.05 seconds just five minutes after Alain Bernard had bettered Sullivan's record of 47.24 from Monday to 47.20 seconds in the first semi-final.

Olympic swimming has now seen a staggering 14 world records.