Phelps makes history

Michael Phelps has become the most successful Olympian of all time, winning the 10th and 11th gold medals of his career on Wednesday.

The American sensation initially powered home in a world record time of one minute 52.03 seconds in the men's 200m butterfly final to collect his fourth gold at the Beijing Games, adding to the six he picked up in Athens in 2004.

Phelps then returned to the pool in the 4x200m freestyle relay, helping the USA quartet to a comprehensive victory and his fifth gold of the summer and 11th overall.

Having led off his team on the first leg, Phelps' team-mates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay carried on where he left off by clocking a new world record time of 6:58.56, the first time the seven-minute barrier has been broken.

In a thrilling battle for the other medals, Russia claimed silver ahead of Australia, with Britain's quartet of David Carry, Andrew Hunter, Robert Renwick and Ross Davenport setting a new British record of 7:05.92 in sixth.

Individual triumph

In his history-making butterfly success, which gave him an unprecedented 10th Olympic gold, the 23-year-old led from the halfway point but was made to battle hard to finish ahead of Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.

After the victory Phelps didn't look to happy but he revealed it was due to a problem with his goggles.

He said: "I couldn't see anything for the last 100m, my goggles pretty much filled up with water.

"It just kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls to be honest. But it's fine. I wanted to break the record and wanted to go 1:51 or better but in the circumstances I guess it's not too bad."

Both triumphs keep Phelps on target to eclipse Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at one Games.

Honoured

It now takes Phelps above and beyond the previous best haul of nine gold medals for an Olympian, and he admitted that he was thinking about his new title as the most successful athlete ever at teh Games.

"I'm almost at a loss for words," said Phelps.

"To be the most decorated Olympian of all time, it just sounds weird. I am speechless.

"It started to sink in a little after the butterfly. I was trying to focus on my next race but I kept thinking 'Wow. Greatest Olympian of all time.' It's a pretty neat title and I'm definitely honoured.

"When you have an Olympic gold medal it stays with you forever. It never gets

old listening to your national anthem with a gold medal around your neck."