McClatchy Washington Bureau

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BEIJING - The sun came out for a change Tuesday morning (well, as much as the sun comes out here, anyway), and Michael Phelps rolled out of bed and headed back to the bubble-skinned Water Cube, his $200 million home away from home during these Olympics. Phelps ought to just set up a cot at the aquatic center, for he is racing 17 times in his quest for an Olympic-record eight gold medals.

So far, the cube has been his private temple.

He made it three-for-three for gold medals, and three-for-three for world records, with a jaw-dropping victory in the 200-meter freestyle. Phelps, swimming in Lane 6 rather than his familiar Lane 4, exploded off the blocks and jumped out to a huge lead. By the halfway mark, he was a full body-length ahead of eventual silver medalist Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea.

Phelps captured his third gold in 1:42.96, shaving 0.90 seconds off his old world mark, set in Melbourne, Australia, in 2007. He beat Tae-Hwan by nearly two seconds. Joining Phelps on the podium was teammate Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.), who won the bronze with a time of 1:45.14.

Phelps is still chasing Mark Spitz, who won seven golds in 1972, but he tied the U.S. swimming icon on one count. He now has nine career gold medals, which puts him in an elite list that includes Spitz, Larissa Latynina (gymnastics, Soviet Union), Carl Lewis (track and field, USA), and Paavo Nurmi (track and field, Finland).

"To be tied for most Olympic gold medals of all time with those names is a pretty amazing accomplishment," Phelps said. "That's pretty cool.''

Phelps said his strategy Tuesday was to get out early into open water, where his competition couldn't see him as easily. "Being in Lane 6, I knew the guys in the middle of the pool would have a hard time seeing me, so I wanted to jump out in the first 100 to 150 and gain enough ground to hang on. I knew Tae-Hwan would have a good last 50, so I wanted to be more than a body-length ahead by 150."

Phelps had dominated the 200 freestyle in recent years, but it was the one individual race he failed to win in Athens four years ago. Ian Thorpe won that race, and Phelps had to settle for bronze.

This time, it was no contest.

"Phelps swam so fast,'' said Park. "It's really my honor to compete with him."

The Baltimore native had little time to relax after his win, as he had to swim the 200 butterfly semifinals 45 minutes later.

"Right now I need to get some rest, get some food in my system, and get back to the village to prepare for (Wednesday),'' Phelps said. "I have two big races coming up."

His next two events are the 200-meter butterfly and the 4x200 relay.

"I'm eating a lot of pasta and pizza, lots of carbs," Phelps said. "And I'm sleeping a lot. I've been waking up at 4:30 in the morning, and then falling back to sleep. It takes me a while to get up in the morning. I am glad I will have extra recovery time (Tuesday night) because I think that is crucial for the next few days.''

Phelps' jam-packed schedule barely allows him time to celebrate each medal, but he allowed himself to savor his second gold, which he won Monday as part of one of the most dramatic relay races in recent Olympic history. Anchor Jason Lezak made up a half-body length, and out-touched world-record holder Alain Bernard of France to win the 4x100 relay by eight one-hundredths of a second.

"It's certainly the greatest Olympic relay race I've ever seen," said NBC announcer Rowdy Gaines

"Without a doubt it's the great Olympic moment I've ever experienced or called, head and shoulders above anything, and we have done some pretty good things," said NBC analyst Dan Hicks. "It's just one of those rare moments that you get in this business to be a part of something like that, and the fact that it now has a chance to continue, one of the greatest Olympic stories ever in Michael Phelps, just makes it an even bigger moment."

Phelps admitted it was "hard to put that race behind you." He told NBC he had hundreds of text messages on his phone after the relay gold. More than 81 million people watched the race on NBC Sunday night, and more than 1 million people had downloaded streams of the race on the NBC website.

"It wasn't easy to put that one behind me," he said "All the emotions, all the people texting me. I had friends really pumped up, writing me, telling me they couldn't sleep. They wrote, 'How can you be napping?' And I'd say, 'I'm not napping if you keep texting me.' I had to force myself to put it behind. I have so many races, and have to do so much for each race, I have to make sure I'm 100 percent focused. I'm almost half-way there.''

No doubt the cell phone is overloaded with messages again after Gold No. 3.

In other marquee events Tuesday, Natalie Coughlin won gold in her signature event, the 100-meter backstroke, and world-record holder Aaron Peirsol led a 1-2 U.S. finish in the 100-meter backstroke.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," Coughlin said. "When I first saw the time I thought they had made a mistake. It was a very fast time. Then I saw my name and I realized that I got it."

Coughlin (Lafayette, Calif.) was joined on the podium by teammate and bronze medalist Margaret Hoelzer (Huntsville, Ala.)

Coughlin won in 58.96 seconds, edging Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry by 0.23. Coventry, who went to Auburn and trains in Texas, had set a world record in the semifinals of the event a day earlier.

Hoelzer was fifth at the turn, but swam the return leg in 29.02 to secure a medal.

Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.) posted a time of 52.54 seconds, breaking his own world record of 52.89, set July 1 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Neb. He finished 0.57 ahead of teammate Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill.), who took the silver in 53.11 seconds. The bronze medal went to Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin, who touched in 53.18 seconds.

"We (Peirsol and Grevers) were trying to go one-two the whole time," Peirsol said. "It didn't matter who was one, we just wanted to go one and two. I looked up and saw Matt Grevers next to me, I was elated. Stuff like that is like a dream come true. I'm a little bit excited, a little bit relieved, absolutely elated."