Michael Phelps enters Olympic record books

Michael Phelps won the right to call himself the greatest Olympian of all time when the U.S. team destroyed the field in the 4x200 meters freestyle relay on 31 July 2012 at the London Games to hand him his 19th medal. Having picked up a silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay at London, he drew level with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina's tally of 18 when he won silver in the 200 meters butterfly. Phelps had already set the record for gold medals, winning six in Athens in 2004 and an unprecedented eight in Beijing four years ago.