Phelps breaks Olympic gold record

US swimmer Michael Phelps broke the record for Olympic gold medals won by taking his 10th and 11th in a double victory on Wednesday.

Phelps, 23, won his fourth gold of the Beijing Olympics and 10th of all time with victory in the 200m butterfly.

And he claimed yet another gold as part of the US 4x200m freestyle team.

Phelps has now surpassed the nine golds won by Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larysa Latynina to cement his place in Olympic history.

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He is also bidding to beat Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympic games and has moved to within three of that achievement.

The US star came a step closer to gold number six when he eased through to the semi-finals of the 200m individual medley, winning his heat in a time of one minute 58.65secs

He has the 100m butterfly and the 4x100m medley relay later in the week.

"There is still something left in the tank," he said. "I've got three races left, so there had better be something left in the tank."

Phelps began proceedings in the Water Cube on Wednesday in typical fashion, beating Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda in a world record time of 1:52.03 to claim 200m butterfly gold.

He looked slightly underwhelmed following the victory, despite the magnitude of his achievement, and revealed that a pair of leaky goggles almost scuppered his chances of glory.

But he battled on despite the fault to shave 0.06secs of his own 200m butterfly world record.

"My goggles kept filling up with water during the race," he said.

"I wanted a world record, I wanted 1:51 or better, but in the circumstances it's not too bad I guess."

And along with US team-mates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay, Phelps later claimed relay gold in the 4x200m freestyle in another world record time of 6:58.56secs.

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Russia took the silver and Australia the bronze, while Great Britain's four came in sixth.

"I'm pumped about our relay," said Phelps. "It's the most fun thing to be in a team environment and be part of a relay.

"It's cool when you get four Americans who all swim well together. Everyone has to play their part or it's just not going to happen.

"We've been lucky that we've been able to do that."

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
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