Phelps clears first Olympic hurdle

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Michael Phelps kicked off a potentially historic Olympic effort Sunday by setting a world record and claiming his first gold medal of the Beijing Games.

Phelps, the American superstar who could become the most prolific winner in the 112-year history of the Olympics, captured the 400-meter individual medley in the time of 4:03.84.

That shattered the world record he set in the Olympic trials and sent him on his way to a possible eight gold medals in the Games. The record for most golds in one Olympics is seven, set by Mark Spitz in 1972.

Sunday's win gave Phelps his seventh gold over two Olympics and the career gold medal record is nine, shared by Paavo Nurmi, Larysa Latynina, Spitz and Carl Lewis.

Phelps, with President George W. Bush looking on, finished 2.32 seconds in front of Hungary's Laszlo Cseh. American Ryan Lochte was third. It was the second of a scheduled 17 swims at the Olympics for Phelps.

"I'll eat, sleep and swim," he said. "That's about all I can do."

The other swimming winners Sunday were South Korea's Tae Hwan Park in the men's 400 freestyle, Stephanie Rice of Australia in the women's 400 individual medley and a quartet from the Netherlands in the women's 400 freestyle relay.

Park, disqualified in the same event four years ago for falling into the water off the starting blocks, won the first swimming medal ever for his country. So did China's Zhang Lin, who took the silver behind Park.