 "Photo: Mark Dunham (Associated Press)")
BEIJING - A mythical Mount Rushmore of Olympic champions used to be pretty easy to assemble. The four spots would've gone to the only athletes with nine gold medals: Americans Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz, Russia's Larysa Latynina and the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi.
Now, Michael Phelps has joined them. And he's already poised to leave them in his wake.
Phelps got No. 9 Tuesday in the 200-meter freestyle, getting so far ahead so quickly that most of the race it looked as if he'd been given a head start. His third gold medal in Beijing came in world-record time, just like the other two.
On Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in the U.S.), Phelps will be back at the Water Cube for the finals of the 200 butterfly and the 800 freestyle relay.
What are his chances? Well, he has the world records in both events.
Win either and he becomes the most-gilded Olympian ever. Win both and they might as well start carving Mount Phelps. Not only will he be far and away atop the career list, he'll be more than halfway toward his goal of eight in '08, which would break Spitz's record for a single Olympics.
"He's not just winning, he's absolutely destroying everything," teammate Aaron Peirsol said. "It's awesome to watch."
Awesome described a lot of day four happenings in Beijing.
There were a bunch more medals and records at the pool, plus cancer patient Eric Shanteau getting into the semifinals of the 200-meter breaststroke. There was the practically flawless performance by China's men's gymnasts and the plucky bronze for the Hamm-less U.S. men. There was superb pitching and powerful hitting in a record rout by the U.S. women's softball team.
Even the weather was good. Sun anThe medal race, meanwhile, is very real.
The success in the pool helped surge the United States past China, 22-20. The Chinese still dominate the gold race 13-7 over the Americans; other than the U.S., no country has as many total medals as China has of the very best color.
Men's gymnastics
The Chinese were supposed to win. The Americans weren't even necessarily supposed to be in the finals, not after losing Paul and Morgan Hamm to injuries in the 10 days before the Olympics.
When the final standings popped up - and the U.S. was behind China and Japan but ahead of Germany - Jonathan Horton screamed: "Nobody believed in us! Nobody believed in us."
Longhorns in Beijing
- Kristy Coventry, Olympic swimmer and UT volunteer assistant coach, won her second silver medal of the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, placing second behind defending Olympic champion American Natalie Coughlin. - UT juniors Ricky Berens and Dave Walters led Team USA to a new Olympic record and the top seed in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. Walters, from Yorktown, Va. and Berens, from Charlotte, N.C., helped the team to a 7 minute, 4.66 second finish. Berens' leg was the second fastest of the event. - Former Longhorn Garrett Weber-Gale qualified the 100-meter freestyle semifinals after placing eighth with a 48.19 second time in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Weber-Gale was a part of the Team USA 4x100m freestyle relay team that won gold. - Junior Scott Spann placed second in his 200-meter breaststroke preliminary heat to qualify for the semifinals. - Incoming freshman Kathleen Hersey won her heat in the 200-meter butterfly preliminaries on Tuesday, placing seventh among all semifinal qualifiers. - The U.S. softball team run-ruled Venezuela for an 11-0 win. Former Longhorn Cat Osterman did not pitch.
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