Michael Phelps is NOT overrated

BEIJING - The US lead in the men's 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay today was almost comical. And that was when Michael Phelps finished his leadoff leg in 1 minute 43.31 seconds. Not only was Phelps more than two seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, but he also put the Americans well ahead of world-record pace.

Phelps earned his fifth gold medal and his fifth world record of the Beijing Games when the US won the race in 6:58.56, smashing the previous record by 4.68 seconds. The gold represented the 13th Olympic medal of Phelps's career, surpassing swimmer Jenny Thompson for the most won by an American athlete. Between Phelps and the team's record-setting effort, runner-up Russia was an afterthought, touching the wall more than five seconds back for the silver medal.

"It's everything I ever dreamed about," said Phelps, whose victory earlier in the day in the 200-meter butterfly earned him his 10th gold medal, the most ever by an Olympian. "On the podium, I kept tearing up [thinking] back at it. I'm almost at a loss for words . . . I'm just really pumped about the relay. We talked about breaking seven minutes, and we did it."

When asked about his ongoing attempt to win eight gold medals, Phelps made it clear he still has "some left in the tank" and added, "From now on, it's just a downward slope. The end is close. I love it."

Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens, and Peter Vanderkaay celebrated their win with swimming's version of a victory lap, walking around the pool with their gold medals around their necks and American flags in hand. Although he watched from the stands and was not one of the four swimmers in the final, the relay triumph was also good news for North Easton's Erik Vendt. He has two silvers from past Olympics, but Vendt earned his first gold medal by virtue of swimming the third leg of the relay in the preliminaries.

For Phelps, the relay gold capped another day of dominance at the National Aquatics center. After finishing the 200-meter fly in a world-record 1:52:03, he casually tossed his goggles and cap to the pool deck. Following the medal ceremony, he tossed the bouquet of flowers to his mother in the stands. There should be a few more of those bouquets to come.

In his quest to win eight gold medals at the Games, Phelps passed the halfway point with the relay win. But his victory in the butterfly was another record-setter as he surpassed Finnish track runner Paavo Nurmi, American sprinter Carl Lewis, American swimmer Mark Spitz, and Ukranian gymnast Larissa Latynina with gold medal No. 10. And Phelps won the race despite difficulty seeing. A lesser swimmer might have been completely thrown off by goggle problems, but apparently nothing can stop Phelps.

"I couldn't see for the last 100," said Phelps. "My goggles pretty much filled up with water. It just kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls, to be honest. But it's fine. I wanted to go 1:51 or better, but for the circumstances I guess it's not too bad."

While Phelps keeps collecting gold, Katie Hoff is still without a gold medal. In fact, she left the National Aquatics Center yesterday with no medals. It is far from the Olympics she imagined.

Hoff entered the Olympics with the fastest time in the women's 200-meter freestyle and a slight favorite in the event. But she finished a disappointing fourth in 1 minute 55.78 seconds. Her time set an American record, though that was little consolation for a swimmer who arrived at the Games ready to compete in six events (one relay) and hoping to win multiple golds. Italian Federica Pellegrini (1:54.82) appeared somewhat shocked with her world record-setting victory, pounding the water with her fist as the results appeared. Slovenia's Sara Isakovic finished second and China's Pang Jiaying took bronze.

"I would have liked to medal, but I got my first personal best of the meet and I think that's a good effort," said Hoff. "I can't be upset with that and I'm just moving onto the next heat."

Hoff's next event was the women's 200 individual medley. She was expected to challenge Stephanie Rice of Australia, who won the race. Instead, it was US teammate Natalie Coughlin who got to the medal stand with a time of 2:10.34, capturing bronze in an event she shied away from for years after finishing fourth in the event at the 2000 Olympic trials and failing to make the US team.

"It's a big surprise for me and it's my third medal [at Beijing]," said Coughlin. "Now, I've got one of each color, so I'm happy. It's a new event to me. I'm still trying to figure out my strategies, but I'm so pleased and really happy with the bronze. Back in April, I didn't have any event that day, so I just picked it up for something to do."

Meanwhile, Hoff may have too much to do at the Beijing Olympics to bring home the medals she desires. The 200 IM final was less than an hour after she swam the 200-meter freestyle final.

"She's a stud," said Coughlin., "She swam many, many events and many unusual doubles. But with the 200 free and 200 IM, she'd be tired. I'd be tired too, if I had more events."

Hoff, who has won a bronze and a silver here, has one more shot - in the 800 free - to win individual gold.