Michael Phelps VIDEO - World Record Olympian - Best Swimming Races & 13 Medals

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer who holds world records in several events. Phelps has won thirteen (eleven gold, two bronze) Olympic medals overall, eight (six gold, two bronze) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and five (all gold) at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,[2], which gave him the most gold medals of any Olympic athlete at 11.[3]

Phelps's eight medals in the Athens Olympics tied him with Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin for the most medals of any type in any one Olympics. [4]

Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being awarded the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007.

Phelps has qualified to compete in eight swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and is attempting to beat Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at one Olympics.

US swimmer Michael Phelps broke the record for Olympic gold medals won by taking his 10th and 11th in a double victory on Wednesday.

Phelps, 23, won his fourth gold of the Beijing Olympics and 10th of all time with victory in the 200m butterfly.

And he claimed yet another gold as part of the US 4x200m freestyle team.

Phelps has now surpassed the nine golds won by Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larysa Latynina to cement his place in Olympic history.


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He is also bidding to beat Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympic games and has moved to within three of that achievement.

The US star came a step closer to gold number six when he eased through to the semi-finals of the 200m individual medley, winning his heat in a time of one minute 58.65secs

He has the 100m butterfly and the 4x100m medley relay later in the week.

"There is still something left in the tank," he said. "I've got three races left, so there had better be something left in the tank."

Phelps began proceedings in the Water Cube on Wednesday in typical fashion, beating Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda in a world record time of 1:52.03 to claim 200m butterfly gold.