Being: Michael Phelps won an unprecedented eighth gold medal at the Beijing Games on Sunday, surging past yet another Olympic milestone as the United States won the men's 4x100m medley relay in world record time.
With the victory, Phelps overtook compatriot Mark Spitz, whose seven swimming golds at Munich in 1972 were the most at a single Games.
At 23, and competing in his third Olympics, Phelps took his total of Olympic titles to a record 14, including six from Athens, where he also claimed two bronze.
The US squad of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps and Jason Lezak won a tight race in 3:29.34, Lezak holding off Australian individual world record-holder Eamon Sullivan on the closing freestyle leg.
The United States were lying third when Phelps hit the water for the penultimate butterfly leg. He had given the United States a narrow lead by the time he handed over to Lezak.
"I don't know what to feel right now, there are so many emotions going through my head and so much excitement, I guess I just want to see my mom," Phelps said.
The Americans improved on the previous world record of 3:30.68. Australia were also under the previous record, taking silver in 3:30.04 and Japan took the bronze in 3:31.18.
"It's a beautiful thing, I am so proud to be a part of this relay team," Peirsol said.
"It wasn't like we were doing this for Michael, but it's an honor to be part of it. It would have been something if we hadn't done it.
"Sullivan came back at the end, but I think at the end of a long competition we are all a little tired right now," Peirsol added.
Indeed when the much anticipated moment came, there was no scream of triumph, no fist-pounding gesture of victory from Phelps, who was hugged by his teammates and shook hands with his rivals before calmly raising his arms toward the crowd and drawing a roar from the Water Cube fans.
"I have been fairly speechless since the relay," Phelps said. "This is all a dream come true, just to be able to imagine anything, to go through the ups and downs and accomplish everything you ever dreamed of."
"I was really nervous going into this, because anything can happen in one race," admitted Lezak, who had saved Phelps's bid for history with his unlikely surge past France's Alain Bernard on the final leg of the 4x100m free relay on Monday.
"I wanted to take it out hard and hold on as long as I could. I never thought I'd catch Bernard, so I knew the same thing could happen to me."
Australia's defeat in the final swimming event of the Games meant the traditional pool power left Beijing without a men's gold.
Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli ended Grant Hackett's dream of an historic three straight 1500m freestyle golds with a victory in 14:40.84.
Mellouli sprinted clear with 300m remaining and held off the Australian great's spirited finish.
Hackett, the winner of the event in Sydney and Athens and bidding to become the first male swimmer to win three Olympic titles in the same event, took the silver in 14:41.53, only 0.49secs behind.
Canadian Ryan Cochrane, who led up to the 1000m, finished third in 14:42.69.
Mellouli, 24, has only recently served out an 18-month doping ban after becoming Tunisia's first swimming world champion with a come-from-behind win in the 800m freestyle at last year's world championships in Melbourne.
Mellouli was subsequently stripped of the gold medal after testing positive for amphetamines and completed his ban in May in time to swim at the Olympics.
"It's the redemption I wanted, and I got it," Mellouli said.
Germany's Britta Steffen won the women's 50m freestyle, edging US veteran Dara Torres to complete a sprint double.
Steffen, who out-gunned world record-holder Libby Trickett to win the 100m freestyle gold, clocked 24.06sec and edged the 41-year-old Torres by just one one-hundredth of a second.
"In the first 20m I noticed Dara Torres beside me," Steffen said. "My coach told me the last 10 metres would decide the results."
Torres, whose silver in the 4x100m free relay in Beijing had already made her the oldest Olympic swimming medallist, added another silver by the narrowest of margins, posting an American record of 24.07.
"I'm thinking I shouldn't have filed my nails last night," Torres quipped.
Behind her, 16-year-old Cate Campbell of Australia - born the year Torres competed in her third Olympic Games in 1992 - took the bronze in 24.17.
Trickett returned to anchor Australia to a world record-breaking victory in the women's 4x100m medley relay.
The Australian quartet of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Trickett clocked 3:52.69 to hold off a US team of Natalie Coughlin, Rebecca Soni, Christine Magnusson and Torres, who claimed the silver in 3:53.30.
With her 12th Olympic medal - 24 years after her first - Torres joined Jenny Thompson as the most decorated US Olympic swimmers.
China's Zhao Jing, Sun Ye, Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying captured bronze in 3:56.11.
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