Phelps reaches 11 golds with two wins

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Michael Phelps moved to the first page of the Olympic history book Wednesday and passed the halfway point in his bid to set a record that might never be broken.

The seemingly unbeatable American swimmer collected two gold medals in the space of an hour, running his total for the Beijing Games to five and his career collection to 11.

No one in the history of the Olympics has won more gold medals than Phelps.

He is scheduled to swim in three more finals and if he wins them all, his eight gold medals in China would break the single-Olympic record set by Mark Spitz 36 years ago.

Given the current structure of the various Olympic competitions, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to do better.

Phelps first captured the 200-meter butterfly by breaking the world record for the seventh time and then came back to lead off the American 800-meter freestyle team that also included Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay. That foursome became the first ever to swim the distance in less than seven minutes -- turning in a 6:58.56.

In the other events Wednesday, Australia's Stephanie Rice won her second gold of the Olympics in the 200-meter individual medley and Italian Federica Pellegrini captured the 200-meter freestyle.

The next final for Phelps will come Friday in the 200-meter individual medley. He will compete in the 100-meter butterfly Saturday and then swim on the 400-meter medley relay team Sunday.