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Michael Phelps at the end of the 200m butterfly race yesterday, breathing heavily, rubbing his eyes and hanging on to the lane rope. His goggles filled with water at the start. (Agencies)
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Michael Phelps swam into Olympic history yesterday, becoming the athlete to win the most gold medals ever.
And he did it swimming blind.
A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina with gold No 9, the American claimed the record all to himself when he won the 200m butterfly at the Water Cube.
A problem with his goggles, however, meant that he swam most of the race without knowing what was going on around him.
Said Phelps of his leaky goggles: "I dove in and they filled right up with water. It got worse and worse as the race went on."
Phelps said he kept track of where he was between the walls by counting strokes.
"There was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't rip them off. (He was wearing two caps and the straps of the goggles were tucked in between them.) I just had to go on swimming.”
"At the 150 meter wall to the finish, I couldn't see the wall. I was hoping I was winning and hoping I would touch the wall first."
Not only did he touch it first, he did it in world record time, his fourth gold and fourth world record at Beijing.
He was timed 1 min 52.03 sec, lowering his old mark of 1:52.09 from the 2007 World Championships. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver. Takeshi Matsuda of Japan got the bronze.
There was a trace of disappointment when he said: "I wanted a world record, I wanted 1:51 or better, but in the circumstances not too bad I guess." Anyway, he had no such worries in his second race of the day, the 4x200m men's freestyle relay.
Phelps set a blistering pace of 1:43.31 that got the Americans rolling toward a world record time of 6:58.56.
Russia took the silver, more than five seconds behind the Americans, who mainly had to make sure they didn't jump in the water too soon. Australia won the bronze.
Phelps has three more races left: The 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay.
"There is still something left in the tank," Phelps said. "I've got three races left, so there had better be something left in the tank."
(Agencies)
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邁克爾?菲爾普斯昨天“游”進了奧運史冊，成了奧運史上獲得金牌最多的運動員。
而且，他還是閉著眼睛“游”進去的。
一天前他才剛剛斬獲第九枚奧運金牌，與名將馬克?斯皮茨、卡爾?劉易斯、帕沃?魯米、拉里莎?拉特尼娜齊名，而當他在水立方拿下200米蝶泳金牌之后，就只剩下他一個人獨領風騷了。
不過，由于他的泳鏡出了點問題，他的大部分賽程是在不了解周圍狀況的情況下完成的。
菲爾普斯在談到他漏水的泳鏡時說：“我剛跳入水中，泳鏡就進滿了水。而且比賽越往后，進的水越多。”
他說他全靠數自己劃水的次數來判斷自己所處的位置。
“我完全拿它沒辦法。我不可能把它扯下來（他戴了兩頂泳帽, 鏡帶夾在兩頂泳帽中間。）我只能繼續游下去。”
“最后50米的時候，我連泳池壁都看不到了。我只希望我能贏，希望自己能第一個到達終點。”
結果，他不僅第一個到達終點，而且還打破了世界紀錄，這是他在北京拿的第四塊金牌，同時也是他創造的第四項世界紀錄。
他用時1分52秒03，刷新了他在2007年世界錦標賽上創造的1分52秒09的成績。匈牙利選手拉斯洛?切赫和日本選手松田丈志分別獲得該項目的銀牌和銅牌。
菲爾普斯不無遺憾地說道：“原本我希望以1分51秒或更好的成績打破世界記錄，但在那種情況下能游出這樣的成績我覺得也還不錯了。”
不過，在之后的第二場比賽、男子4x200米接力中，上述遺憾已經不復存在了。
菲爾普斯以驚人的速度在第一棒就游出了1分43秒31的成績，帶領美國隊以6分58秒56的成績沖破了世界記錄。
認為自己入水速度不夠快的俄羅斯隊落后美國隊五秒多，最終獲得銀牌；澳大利亞隊獲得銅牌。
接下來，菲爾普斯還將參加200米個人混合泳、100米蝶泳以及4x100米混合泳接力的比賽。
他說：“泳池里還有很多項目等著我呢，我還要參加三項比賽，希望我還能再創造點什么。”
（實習生吳昭文 英語點津Helen編輯） |
