- Rice wins another gold
- Phelps now the greatest Olympian
- Sullivan reclaims world record
A touch over two years ago, nobody outside of swimming circles, her family and friends, and maybe those on Facebook, knew anything about Stephanie Rice. Today, among a women's team of superstars, she is the Australian golden girl, claiming her second Olympic gold medal.
It was just 29 months ago that Rice broke onto the Australian landscape when she starred at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Since then she has produced stirring performances at the world titles the following year, world records at the trials in March, and now, the ultimate, golden Olympic souvenirs.
In one of the better races of the Games, a thrilling stroke for stroke battle with Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, Rice just managed to overhaul her tenacious rival right on the wall, and win by the bare margin of 0.13s.
Even she seemed surprised when she turned and looked at the scoreboard. First a blank look, then a massive roar of jubilation.
And just for the record, she broke the record, lowering her own world mark by a further 0.47s, clocking 2min.08.45s. For Coventry - who was 0.44s behind Rice in the 400m IM - it was de ja vu, as once again she surrendered a lead to the Australian after appearing set for gold.
Rice continues the trend of the past three Olympics where the woman who has won the 400m individual medley, goes on to win the 200m. In Atlanta in 1996 it was Irishwoman Michelle Smith, then in both Sydney and Athens, Ukrainian star Yana Klochkova took out the double.
"It's something I've dreamed about for a long time," she said of completing the Olympic double. "It was obviously my ultimate goal.
"I'm so excited to see the results pull through. I've put a lot of effort into this preparation so I'm really excited to see the results turn out the way they have.
"It was a really great battle (with Coventry) and that's what the Olympics are all about, the challenge."
American Natalie Coughlin, winner of the backstroke gold medal last night, collected the bronze in medley in a time of 2min.10.34s. Her US teammate Katie Hoff, who was expected to be the big threat to Rice in both the 200m IM and the 400m IM, finished fourth, just as she did earlier in the day in the 200m freestyle final.
Australia's other finalist, 20-year-old Alicia Coutts, swam a terrific race in her first major international meet, finishing in fifth place in a time of 2min.11.43s.
Phelps the greatest Olympian in history
Michael Phelps has become the greatest Olympian in history, winning the 200m butterfly gold in a world record time to claim the 10th gold medal of his Games career.
Touching in 1min 52.03sec, Phelps improved on the record of 1:52.09 he set in winning the world title in Melbourne last year.
He has moved past Olympic icons Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larysa Latynina, who all won nine golds in their storied careers.
He joined that group yesterday and has a chance later today to add to his gold tally in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final.
Sullivan smashes world record - again
Australian swim star Eamon Sullivan reclaimed his 100m freestyle world record in the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics today.
Sullivan stopped the clock at 47.05 seconds to slice 0.15 off the mark set by Frenchman Alain Bernard in the first semi-final just minutes before which had lowered the record Sullivan set during the 4x100m relay on Monday.
Sullivan's performance reinforced his favouritism for tomorrow's final in the blue-ribbon event.
Sullivan said he tried to tune out of the first semi-final in which his record was broken, but couldn't help but hear.
"I was trying not to watch the (race) before, I didn't really want to see what time they went but you can't help but hearing obviously with the loud speaker," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said after a good warm up, he wanted to try and snatch back the world record.
"It was only just by a little bit (and) I was feeling pretty good in the warm up to so I thought I'd have a go and try and go a little bit faster and I'm really glad I did."
Tomorrow's final promises to be a thriller but Sullivan says he will keep his cool.
"(I will) just approach it like any other race.
"It is another race and if you do it any differently to how you do it before you're probably not going to swim as well so you just shut out all the distractions and have fun."
Fellow Australian Matt Targett also nailed a personal best to make the final.