phelps is da man

and so, Michael Phelps picks up his 7th gold (out of 7 events) at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia, breaking Ian (the Thorpedo) Thorpe's standing record of 6 gold medals in the 2001 world championship in Fukuoka, Japan. Phelps' awesome achievement also matches that of Mark Spitz, who collected 7 gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

what makes his feats even more remarkable is that, 5 of the those events were accomplished in world record times. phelps blitzed other swimmers in five individual events (200m and 400m IM, 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m free) and in 2 team relays (4×100m and 4×200m free). he would have easily made history by picking up his 8th gold in 4×100m IM relay had the US team not been disqualified earlier due to a teammate's miscue.

it is also strangely ironic that ian thorpe himself is currently being besieged by questions sparked by a recent L'Equipe (France) article that tagged him as the swimmer whose May 2006 drug test showed adverse analytical results. This report naturally incurred the outrage of Australian fans and officials, who overwhelmingly threw their support for the popular swimming icon.