BEIJING—Michael Phelps swam his way into sporting immortality on Sunday by winning his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
The 23-year-old, who had already won more gold medals than any other athlete at the Olympics, broke Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at a single Games, set at Munich in 1972.
It was a record that had stood unchallenged for 36 years but the wait to find someone to go better than Phelps could take another century.
His eighth gold medal came in the 4x100 meters medley relay, the final event of the Olympic swimming program, and was accompanied by another world record.
Phelps teamed up with backstroker Aaron Peirsol, breaststroker Brendan Hansen and freestyler Jason Lezak to help the United States smash the old mark of three minutes 30.68 seconds with a winning time of 3:29.34.
It was the seventh world record Phelps has been involved in at the Water Cube but more significantly it provided him with an eighth gold medal.
He had earlier won the 400 individual medley, 4x100 freestyle relay, 200 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 4x200 freestyle relay, 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly.
Coupled with his six golds from Athens in 2004, Phelps is a runaway leader on the all-time list of gold medalists, having taken his tally to 14.
Spitz, American athlete Carl Lewis, Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina, all finished their careers with nine golds.
