Olympics Post Day 5

What do you say to this?

• 5 Gold medals in Beijing (so far)
• 5 World records (so far... one for each medal)
• 11 career gold medals (...so far)

You say "Hot damn that's AWESOME!", that's what. Or, you just stare in slack-jawed, silent admiration. Picture this: you are so good at what you do that you break your own world record for the 7th (no, that's not a typo) time on your way to winning your 4th Beijing medal (10th career). That's what Michael Phelps did last night when he won the 200m butterfly event. Can you imagine that, beating your own world record seven times?!?!?! Then, about an hour later, Phelps and the US team absolutely conquered the 4x200m relay. And by conquered, I mean dominated, obliterated, and decimated the competition (and the world record too, for that matter). When the US swimmer is so far ahead of the pack that they have trouble keeping both first and second place in the same frame, you know you're witnessing an ass kicking. When even the green world record line almost falls off the screen... I have nothing more to say about that. I mean, it wasn't quite as dramatic as the come from (way) behind, last second, jaw dropping win the US pulled out in the 4x100m relay, but come on. There is something so cool about watching a world record being not just beaten, but destroyed.

NBCOlympics.com has a poll currently active asking if we think Phelps is the "greatest American athelete of all time". Our answer... overwhelmingly yes.

So then, what do you say to 8 Beijing medals? That's beyond words. And it's something that Phelps is likely to pull off. He's favored to win all three of his other events, and that, I think, will go down as probably the greatest American Olympic moment in history. Finally, to this question, I think the answer is pretty obvious.