Michael Phelps - the best Olympian in the History

Sensational American swimmer Michael Phelps did the impossible winning all eight all gold medals, seven of them are world records in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Is he the greatest American Olympian ever to play?

The answer is Yes. He has beaten the 36 year old record of fellow American Mark Spitz, whose seven swimming golds at Munich in 1972 were the most at a single Games. His remarkable feat is considered to be one of the greatest accomplishments in Olympics’ history but the 23 year old cemented his name to Olympic greatness as he won all the gold medals in all the events in swimming and made history as being part of United States that included teammates Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, and Jason Lezak and Phelps.

Michael Phelps now has 14 gold and 2 bronze medals. He won 6 of the gold and the 2 bronze in Athens 4 years ago and the other 8 golds in the 2008 Beijing Olympics this year.

One reporter also believes that Michael Phelps is the best ever Olympian saying that Phelps has a wide variety of skills and is considered the Willie Mays of Swimming. He added that Phelps swims for distance, for sprints, for relays, in free, in butterfly. He is the ultimate five-tool athlete.

At a young age he has already made history and by the time he peak to his greatest form maybe two, three or four years from now he could end up winning a total of 20 to 22 gold medals, which is highly possible.

“I really wanted to do something that no one’s ever done before in this sport,” Phelps said.
“The term ‘Spitzian feat’ may be outdated,” teammate Aaron Peirsol said. “It may now be ‘Phelpsian feat.’ ”

“When someone says you can’t do something, it shows that anything is possible,” Phelps said. “When you put your mind to a certain thing, it can happen. The biggest thing is nothing is impossible. All it takes is an imagination.” He added.

The question now is how many countries will have more gold medals than Michael Phelps?

2008 Beijing Olympics Day 11 Update Overall Medal Count

Day 11 of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the hunt for the overall Championship continues. The United States still leads the overall medal count with a total of 72 – 22 gold, 24 silver and 26 bronze medals. China holds the second spot with 39 golds and has 14 silver and bronze medals apiece. Following in the third spot is Russia with 36 overall medals while from the land down under Australia has 33 medals to take the fourth spot. France who has only four gold medals under their name follows right behind in the fifth spot with 11 silver and 13 bronze medals, respectively.

Great Britain and Germany are close in the sixth and seventh spot with 27 and 23 overall medals while South Korea and Japan have the same number of gold medals of eight to take eight and ninth spot. Italy rounds up the top ten countries as of Day 11 of the grandest sporting event in this year’s 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Most of the Gold Medals of the United States came from the sporting event of Swimming where amazing Michael Phelps dominated the event taking all eight gold medals in all events. Meanwhile, China, the host country expected to control the field of gymnastics, diving, and weightlifting has lived up to the expectations. China has won eight gold medals in gymnastics alone, while in the sport of diving China has topped the world with six gold medals. The country from Russia takes lead in track and field and wrestling with a total of eight Gold Medals.

There’s a long way to go before the exciting end of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Expect more world records to be broken, more drama and more excitement.

USA, China, and Russia are the top three countries to collect the most medals

With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in China is underway and the host country welcomes world class athletes from all over the world with a grand opening held on day one of the 2008 Beijing Olympics we see China as the biggest threat for United States to capture the overall championship and to win more gold medals.

USA, China, and Russia are the top three countries to collect the most medals. They have been the biggest powerhouses for the past years. In the 2004 Olympics, the medal count consisted of team USA winning 102 medals with 32 golds then followed by Russia with 92 medals then at the third spot is the now host country China with 63 medals. China had the fourth-highest medal total at Atlanta in 1996, third-best behind the U.S. and Russia in 2000 and third-best at Athens in 2004 -- although it was second to the U.S. in gold medals, 36-32.

China is expected to excel in gymnastics, diving, badminton and table tennis. As expected the Chinese and the American anthems will be heard often during the gymnastics competition. China's men won the team title at last year's world championships, led by all-around winner Yang Wei. Xiao Qin won on pommel horse and Chen Yibing won on still rings. The U.S. men were shut out in the event finals but had two fourth-place finishes.

The U.S. women defeated China for the 2007 world team title by nearly a point. Shawn Johnson won gold in the all-around and floor exercise, Nastia Liukin won gold on balance beam and silver on the uneven bars, and Alicia Sacramone won bronze on vault and silver on floor exercise. China's Cheng Fei won gold on vault, Yang Yilin won bronze on the uneven bars and Li Shanshan won bronze on the beam.

China won't face much competition from the U.S. China has a stranglehold on all four table tennis events and should dominate diving. At the 2007 world championships, Chinese athletes won gold in nine of 10 events and a medal in all 10.

China should also thrive in weightlifting, having led the medal table at last year's world championships, with seven gold medals and 12 overall. The U.S. won none. Rowing will also put Chinese athletes on the podium thanks to a $10-million, government-built training complex.

The U.S. will clean up in swimming. Michael Phelps could win eight gold medals and that's a fact.

Women's basketball could also end with a U.S.-China final, as hinted by China's victory over the U.S. in the final of a test event at the Olympic venue in April. On the other hand, the U.S. men won't have to worry about China, but the rest of the world will push them.

At the end of the both these countries need all those competitive instincts to win the medal race.

2008 Beijing Olympics Update

Day three of the grandest sporting event this year continues in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with athletes bound to break new records for pride and honor representing their respective countries, powerhouse teams like China and USA begin their quest for Olympic glory.

Starting off with the event in 2008 Summer games of gymnastics where the Chinese women’s team survived a rare bout of nerves to come first in the qualifiers on Sunday thanks to an equally error-strewn outing from arch-rivals the United States. Head Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen wanted more from his charges, rating their performance at only 70 percent after a string of errors gave a glimpse of the immense pressure on the Chinese to win gold in Beijing.

World champion Americans came up short after vault specialist Samantha Peszek injured her ankle just 30 minutes before she was due to take the floor, failed to capitalize when they also served up a mistake-ridden performance.

In the sporting world of Archery, South Korea's archers set a new 24-arrow world record Sunday en-route to their sixth consecutive Olympic women's team gold medal. Double Olympic champion Park Sung-Hyun combined with teammates Yun Ok-Hee and Joo Hyun-Jung to fire eleven 10s and nine 9s in the 24-arrow women's elimination round for a 231 point total. The previous world record of 228 was set by South Korea's Yun Ok-Hee, Yun Mi-Jin and Lee Tuk-Young at the World Cup in Shanghai in 2006. It set them on the way to the final where they beat China while France took the bronze.

In swimming, the United States broke their own world record in the men's 4x100-metres freestyle relay with a time of three minutes 12.23 seconds in the heats at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday. The American team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers beat the previous record of 3:12.46 held by the USA at the Pan Pacs in Victoria, Canada, in August 2006.

France qualified with the second fastest time and a new European record while Canada and Great Britain also reached the final with the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively.

In day one of the most popular sport in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – basketball Argentina's hopes of defending the Olympic men's basketball crown took a serious blow when Lithuania stunned a South American squad featuring five National Basketball Association standouts 79-75.

Linas Kleiza of team Lithiunia of the sank the game-winning three-pointer with just over two seconds remaining after Manu Ginobili, who scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter, sparked an 11-0 run to level the game at 75-75.

Reigning world champion Spain opened by routing Greece 81-66 in a rematch of the 2006 World Championship final in a Group B clash.

Chinese Names of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics just around the corner, Team USA is already in Macau, China preparing for the summer games and bound to redeem themselves after a woeful showing in international play for the past seven years. USA Basketball finished sixth place in 2002 World Championship. In addition, USA Basketball failed to win the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics as they lost lost three games on its way to a bronze medal, a record that represented more losses in a single year than the country's Olympic teams had suffered in all previous Olympiads combined.

Now things are looking good for the Men's National Basketball Team as they have added proven leaders with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Jason Kidd. On the lighter side, with team USA in China right now, let us take a look on two basketball superstars - Kobe Bryant and Lebron James and see and their Chinese names say. First off with Lebron James. Lebron's definition of Chinese name is Liu that means willow tree and pleasure while his surname James in Chinese stands for Jiang. This translates to Jiang Liu bo for Cleveland Superstar LeBron James.

For the "Black Mamba" Kobe Bryant his Chinese translation is Bei Kuang bang - (Kuang - extensivel, wide and broad) while (bang - nation, country and state). Well, Kobe Bryant can carry this team all the way back to the international scene and win his first Olympic Medal.

Team USA is determined to put an end to these recent failures, USA Basketball has changed its philosophy and has looked to field complete teams instead of piecing together rosters of NBA All-Stars at the last minute. Team USA won their first seven games at the 2006 World Championships in Japan, losing against Greece in the semi-finals. After coming away with a bronze, Team USA is still striving to recapture international gold.

*image courtesy of Ball Don't Lie