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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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迈克尔•菲尔普斯昨天“游”进了奥运史册，成了奥运史上获得金牌最多的运动员。
而且，他还是闭着眼睛“游”进去的。
一天前他才刚刚斩获第九枚奥运金牌，与名将马克•斯皮茨、卡尔•刘易斯、帕沃•鲁米、拉里莎•拉特尼娜齐名，而当他在水立方拿下200米蝶泳金牌之后，就只剩下他一个人独领风骚了。
不过，由于他的泳镜出了点问题，他的大部分赛程是在不了解周围状况的情况下完成的。
菲尔普斯在谈到他漏水的泳镜时说：“我刚跳入水中，泳镜就进满了水。而且比赛越往后，进的水越多。”
他说他全靠数自己划水的次数来判断自己所处的位置。
“我完全拿它没办法。我不可能把它扯下来（他戴了两顶泳帽, 镜带夹在两顶泳帽中间。）我只能继续游下去。”
“最后50米的时候，我连泳池壁都看不到了。我只希望我能赢，希望自己能第一个到达终点。”
结果，他不仅第一个到达终点，而且还打破了世界纪录，这是他在北京拿的第四块金牌，同时也是他创造的第四项世界纪录。
他用时1分52秒03，刷新了他在2007年世界锦标赛上创造的1分52秒09的成绩。匈牙利选手拉斯洛•切赫和日本选手松田丈志分别获得该项目的银牌和铜牌。
菲尔普斯不无遗憾地说道：“原本我希望以1分51秒或更好的成绩打破世界记录，但在那种情况下能游出这样的成绩我觉得也还不错了。”
不过，在之后的第二场比赛、男子4x200米接力中，上述遗憾已经不复存在了。
菲尔普斯以惊人的速度在第一棒就游出了1分43秒31的成绩，带领美国队以6分58秒56的成绩冲破了世界记录。
认为自己入水速度不够快的俄罗斯队落后美国队五秒多，最终获得银牌；澳大利亚队获得铜牌。
接下来，菲尔普斯还将参加200米个人混合泳、100米蝶泳以及4x100米混合泳接力的比赛。
他说：“泳池里还有很多项目等着我呢，我还要参加三项比赛，希望我还能再创造点什么。”
（实习生吴昭文 英语点津Helen编辑） |
