Sport

Golden boy Phelps begins with a bang

BEIJING: Michael Phelps dominated his first event of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, crushing his own world record and all hopes of his challengers with a time of 4m 3.84s in the 400m individual medley.

Australia’s Stephanie Rice smashed the women’s 400 IM world record, shaving nearly 2 seconds off to win in 4:29.45, South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan won the 400m freestyle and the Netherlands won the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay in an Olympic record of 3:34.33.

But, in that race, all eyes were on the 41-year-old American Dara Torres, who picked up another Olympic medal by anchoring the Americans to a second-place finish.

As for Phelps, the 400m IM was thought to be a potential stumbling block in his quest to win eight gold medals after Ryan Lochte matched him stroke for stroke at the U.S. trials last month.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary separated them this time, taking the silver in 4:06.16. Lochte faded to third in 4:08.09.

The top three traded the lead over the butterfly and backstroke legs. Cseh got off to a quick start, touching the first wall just ahead of Phelps, and Lochte claimed the lead midway through the back.

Phelps had a slight lead at the 200m mark but no one was catching Phelps in the freestyle. He stretched his lead and powered to the wall with nearly his entire body in front of the world-record line — a green marker superimposed on the video screen to show the pace of the previous mark.

Phelps touched the wall and spun around so quickly to see his time that he bumped his head on the wall. He pumped both arms in the air, and quickly spotted his mother and two sisters in the massive stands at the Water Cube.

He then looked the other way, where U.S. President George Bush was waving the American flag, accompanied by the first lady, their daughter Barbara and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

“I looked up and he waved the flag and nodded his head,” Phelps said. “That was a pretty cool feeling to have the president say congratulations and have him in the crowd.”

On the medal stand, Phelps’s eyes were moist as the U.S. flag was raised. The only glitch came during the playing of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ which cut off a few seconds before the end.

Australia’s Rice went out extremely fast and held on at the end to regain the world record from American Katie Hoff, who had set a time of 4:31.12 at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe also went under the old mark, earning silver in 4:29.89. Hoff couldn’t match her performance at the trials, settling for bronze in 4:31.71.

In the men’s 400 freestyle, Park snapped Australia’s dominance of the event at the Olympics. He touched in 3:41.86. Zhang Lin of China earned his country’s first swimming medal of the Games, claiming silver in 3:42.78. The Dutch women’s relay beat the old Olympic mark of 3:35.94 set four years ago by Australia. Natalie Coughlin, adding to the five medals she won in Athens, took the lead-off leg for the Americans, and was followed by Lacey Nymeyer and Kara Lynn Joyce.

But all eyes were on Torres, the oldest Olympic swimmer in U.S. history and an inspiration to everyone by returning to the pool just two years after having a child.

She swam the second-fastest 100 of anyone, but it wasn’t enough to catch Veldhuis. The Americans were second in 3:34.33, while the Australians took bronze in 3:35.05. Swimming in her record fifth Olympics, Torres picked up her 10th medal — four gold, two silver and four bronze.

Meanwhile, USA broke the World record in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of three minutes and 12.23 seconds in the heats.

The American team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers beat the previous record of 3:12.46 set by USA at the Pan Pacs in Victoria, Canada, in August 2006. — Agencies