Michael Phelps of United States on Wednesday won the 200 metres butterfly swimming gold medal in world record time and with it became the most successful athlete in Olympic history with 10 golds overall.
Phelps got the gold in 1 minute 52.03 seconds, lowering by six hundredths the previous record of 1:52.09 he swam at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne. Lazslo Cseh of Hungary took silver in 1:52.70 and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan got bronze in 1:52.97 minutes, the dpa reported.
Phelps' 10th gold medal lifted him to the top of the all-time list, past Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, US swimmer Mark Spitz and US athlete Carl Lewis, who have nine gold medals each.
Phelps won six golds 2004 in Athens and has four golds in Beijing from as many races contested there up to the 200m flyy. He is set to compete in four more races at the Games eyeing an unprecedented eight golds at one Games.