BEIJING -- Water threatened to sink Michael Phelps' bid for eight gold medals at a single Olympics and nearly delayed his ascendancy in becoming the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.
If that sounds strange, you try swimming a 200-meter butterfly with water filling your goggles and getting worse by the second.
Phelps said he couldn't see anything for about the last 100 meters, but he got his hand on the gold medal in that event, in a world-record 1 minute 52.03 seconds, and later added another win, in the 800 freestyle relay in 6:58.56 (another world record), to reach five gold medals here at these Olympics.
Add that to his six from Athens in 2004 and he hit 11 gold medals overall. He arrived at the Water Cube on Wednesday morning tied at nine with these luminaries: swim legend Mark Spitz, U.S. track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi for the most gold medals of all time.
Everyone on hand, including U.S. basketball players Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, witnessed a slice of Olympic history. Except for Phelps, that is. He had to settle for hearing it.
"I couldn't see anything for the last 100, my goggles were pretty much filling up with water," Phelps said. "It kept getting worse and worse through the race. To be honest, I was having trouble seeing the walls."
Who hasn't had problems peering into the distance in Beijing? But this had nothing to do with bad air quality. Phelps tossed his cap and goggles onto the pool deck, looking less than thrilled, and said later he was upset. He rubbed his eyes, probably a byproduct of his close encounter with chlorine.
Well, he is the King of Chlorine with five world records in five events.
He thought about the historical implications when he received his gold medal for the 200 fly.
"That's when I started tearing up," Phelps said. "Being at the top, with so many great athletes who have walked in these Olympic Games, is a pretty amazing feeling."
Who would have thought history would sting Phelps? Between goggle-gate and the thriller of a come-from-behind win behind Jason Lezak's anchor leg in the 400 freestyle relay, Phelps' road has taken a couple of unexpected turns in Beijing.
It was never going to be easy -- the approach to Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals in one Olympics and all-time Olympic history. For all his issues, Phelps did win the 200 fly by 0.67 seconds, practically a close race by his lofty standards.
