Olympics Day 9: Goodbye Mr. Phelps
So swimming is over - well, except the crazy 10k open-water races being held at the rowing venue later this week.
To review the events at the Water Cube, Michael Phelps won every race, and was the only swimmer entered in all of them except the dude with the short fingers.
No, not really. Did you know that 20 swimmers other than Phelps won at least three medals? Natalie Coughlin led the way with six, while Libby Trickett, Kirsty Coventry and Ryan Lochte had four each. Coventry even did it without the help of any relays - she was all Zimbabwe had. Stephanie Rice won three gold medals, while 41-year-old Dara Torres won three silvers, 24 years after winning her first medal in Los Angeles.
Coughlin and Alain Bernard both won at least one of each kind of medal. Coughlin has now done that in back-to-back Olympiads, which gives her trophy case a lot of variety.
Remember the story I told a couple days ago about American shooter Matt Emmons blowing an easy gold medal by shooting at the wrong target? Yesterday, he had a huge lead going into the last round ... and his gun went off prematurely. He finished fourth.
China increased its lead in the medal standings from 10 points to 14 thanks to a boatload of medals in badminton and table tennis. Great Britain moved from seventh into a tight battle for third after dominating the cycling venue for a second straight day.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 24-14-11=173
2) United States 17-17-23=159
3) Australia 8-8-11=75
4) South Korea 8-9-4=71
5) Great Britain 10-5-5=70
6) Russia 6-8-8=62
7) France 4-9-11=58
Japan 8-3-7=56
9) Italy 6-6-6=54
10) Germany 6-4-6=48
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
11) Ukraine 5-3-4=38
12) Holland 2-3-4=23
13) Romania 3-1-2=20
14) Poland 2-3-1=20
15) Czech Republic 2-3-0=19
16) Slovakia 3-1-0=18
17) Cuba 1-3-4=18
18) Canada 2-1-4=17
X) StephanieRiceville 3-0-0=15
19) New Zealand 2-1-2=15
20) Kazahkstan 1-2-4=15