BEIJING - Michael Phelps took another step to becoming the most "golden" Olympian ever, and his teammate helped him display that the Americans' longtime prowess in the pool is continuing.
U.S. swimmers Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol won three of the four finals Tuesday (Monday night in the U.S.) at the Water Cube. The team also picked up two silver medals and two bronzes on a big-haul day for the USA.
"I couldn't ask for anything else so far," Phelps said. "My first three medal races, we've done everything I've wanted to do."
He began the session by dominating the 200-meter freestyle, breaking his own world record with a time of 1 minute, 42.96 seconds. His previous mark was 1:43.86. U.S. teammate Peter Vanderkaay swam 1:45.14 and finished third.
It was the ninth Olympic gold of Phelps' career, tying him for most ever with American swimmer Mark Spitz, U.S. track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi.
Phelps has a chance to win two more golds on Wednesday (Tuesday night in the U.S.) in the 200 butterfly and 800 freestyle relay and take the record all to himself. He said he wasn't even thinking about that mark until his coach, Bob Bowman, mentioned it to him after his victory.
"The Olympics have been around for so many years, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment," Phelps said. "It's definitely an honor. I've been able to spend some time with Carl Lewis, and traded a few words with Spitz here and there."
Phelps, of course, is also trying to break Spitz's record of seven golds in one Olympics. That could have been lost with the 4x100 relay race the day before, but Jason Lezak managed to chase down France's Alain Bernard on the anchor leg for the gold.
"With all the emotion that went into that, I just had to force myself to put it out of my head," Phelps said of trying to always keep his thoughts on his next race. "It's not easy, but with so many races, I know I have so much to do in every race."
The excitement of the day before, though, still carried over in a positive way for the Americans on Tuesday.
"It was absolutely textbook," said Peirsol, who repeated as Olympic champion in the men's 100 backstroke. "The way Natalie swam, and of course Michael had an absolutely beautiful race. I don't think we could have planned it any better. The U.S. team is absolutely snowballing, and hopefully we can keep it going
"What Michael is doing is certainly elevating everybody's performance here. We're a team, and we cheer each other on."
There was a lot to cheer. After Phelps' win, backstrokers Coughlin and Peirsol continued the gold grab for the Americans. Like Peirsol, Coughlin was also the Olympic champion in 2004. However, she lost her world record during the semifinals here the previous day to Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, and then they went head-to-head in the final.
Coughlin won in 58.96, while Coventry took the silver in 59.19, off her world mark of 58.77. American Margaret Hoelzer got the bronze in 59.34.
"When I first saw the time I thought they had made a mistake," Coughlin said. "It was a very fast time."
Up next was Peirsol, who was the big favorite. He swam like it, breaking his own world record, which he set during the Olympic trials in Omaha. Peirsol won here in 52.54, and teammate Matt Grevers was second (53.11).
In the last final Tuesday, the women's 100 breaststroke, American Rebecca Soni got a silver (1:06.73) behind Australia's Leisel Jones (1:05.17). Soni was originally not even supposed to be in this event, but she had to swim it because Jessica Hardy withdrew from the U.S. team after a positive test for a banned substance. Soni's better race is actually supposed to be the 200 breaststroke, which she won at the U.S. trials.
"It's pretty incredible," Soni said of her 100 success. "I wasn't really ready to swim this a couple of days ago. To medal in it is amazing. It felt like less pressure, because it wasn't my event. I kind of just had fun with it."
Phelps has been trying to have some fun, too, but mostly he's scarfing down carbs (lots of pizza and pasta), getting massages, taking ice baths, texting friends and trying to sleep. When he's not in the pool, that is.
"I'm not even halfway done yet," he said of the eight-gold quest here.
While Phelps' performances have been the story of these Olympics so far, so has the U.S. team's success overall.
"It might be once in a century you see something like this," Peirsol said of Phelps. "With the rest of the world catching up in swimming, for him to be doing what he is - it speaks volumes. It's awesome to watch; it's inspiring to me. But he's not the only one; this team is stepping up to be probably the best team I've ever been on."