Michael Phelps and relay teammates relish their golden moment
BEIJING -- On any other night, a world-record swim by Italy's Federica Pellegrini in the heats of the 200-meter freestyle, an Olympic record by Michael Phelps in the heats of the men's 200 butterfly and Katie Hoff's continuation of a frustrating quest for gold would have been the main topic of conversation at the National Aquatics Center.
But the buzz late Monday still focused on the sizzling, world-record performance by the U.S. men's 400-meter relay earlier in the day, a moment Phelps couldn't help reliving.
Phelps was preparing for the first round of the 200 butterfly -- the third event on his ever-more-successful pursuit of a record eight gold medals -- when he looked up at a TV screen. There he was, celebrating with teammate Garrett Weber-Gale after Jason Lezak's stunning anchor-leg swim and letting loose a deep and forceful primal scream.
"I started laughing. They were showing a replay when I was stretching back in the warmup area, and I started cracking up," he said.
"My and Garrett's reaction, yeah, I let out a pretty fierce yell. It just shows how emotional it was and how excited we were. It was just an amazing race."
He obviously wasn't distracted by the highlight show, since he cruised to an Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 53.70 seconds in the 200 fly and advanced to Tuesday's semifinals. U.S. teammate Gil Stovall also advanced, with a time of 1:55.42. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, the runner-up to Phelps in the 400 individual medley, had the second-fastest time Monday, 1:54.48.
Phelps, who seems more relaxed and engaging each day, seemed a tad embarrassed by his exultation after the relay triumph.
"I definitely don't think I've celebrated that much after a race in my life. We were talking this morning back in the village, that race is better than the 800 free in Athens," he said, referring to an 800-freestyle relay victory that shattered a record long held by Australia.
"As a whole, five teams broke the world record. We broke the world record by four seconds and won by nine one-hundredths of a second. So, it was a pretty intense race, a pretty fun race, and I was glad to be a part of it."
Pellegrini's world-record time of 1:55.45 in the heats of the women's 200 freestyle gave her a consolation prize after she had finished fifth in the 400-meter freestyle finals earlier in the day.
Asked whether she had been going for a world record, Pellegrini said no -- five times, just to make it clear.
