American Michael Phelps has become the winningest Olympic athlete ever, earning his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Games with a world record in the 200-metre butterfly.

He touched in one minute 52.03 seconds, breaking his old mark of 1:52.09 set at last year's world championships in Australia.

It was Phelps' 10th career gold medal, breaking a tie with Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and two others for most golds. He is 4-for-4 so far, setting world records in each of his events.
Full story: Phelps wins fourth Olympic gold

Is Michael Phelps the greatest ever Olympian?

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5 Comments

Greatest Swimmer? Not much doubt there.

Greatest Athlete? Impossible to tell. Comparing him with someone like Lewis is just not possible.

He is definitely a phenomenal Athlete.
Trev, 2008-08-15 07:03:46

There is no doubt he is a great athlete. However, just because medals are handed out in swimming for nearly every conceivable permutation and combination of swimming style and distance, I don't think that necessarily equates to mutiple winners in swimming being superior athletes to those who only have a chance at one medal, such as hockey, baseball or basketball players.
Lorin, 2008-08-15 04:56:28

Time will tell.
rk, 2008-08-14 23:20:16

Time will tell.
rk, 2008-08-14 23:20:15

I find it difficult to believe that in todays sports world, one man can dominate so many races with no "unnatural" help. Two swimming disciplines and two distances sounds a little fishy to me. When Ben Johnson was so far ahead of the compitition in just one race it was said to be proof that he was using the juice. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Phelps is using something as well but I'm sure that the Americans pay their doctors better than we do in Canada.
Todd, 2008-08-13 22:38:38

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