Olympic Games 101

At the 1896 Athens Games, the first Olympic swimming competitions were held outdoors, in and around the Bay of Zea and were watched by 40,000 people on the shore.. The swimmers, taken by a small boats to the starting line out sea, had to battle not only each other, but also horribly cold weather (13 degrees Fahrenheit) and 12-foot waves. Of the 13 entries in the 100-meter freestyle, only two finished.

RECORD BREAKER!!!

Phelps flies to Olympic gold medal record
With wins, swimmer now has five at Beijing Games
By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com
Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008 7:57 PM ET

BEIJING -- Michael Phelps won the men's 200-meter butterfly Wednesday and not even an hour later helped lift the U.S. 4x200m freestyle relay team to victory, becoming the winningest athlete in Olympic history, now with 11 gold medals -- and counting.

Michael Phelps wins the 200m butterfly on Day 5 of the Beijing Games for his record-setting 10th career Olympic gold medal.
The U.S. men didn't just set the world record, they destroyed it. Their 6:58.56 was 4.68 seconds faster than the previous record, also set by the U.S. men at the 2007 World Championships.
Phelps swam a 1:43 31 leading off the relay, just short of his personal best, and the world record, set the day before in winning the 200m freestyle. Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay did the rest, as the silver medalists from Russia finished more than five seconds behind.

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