OLYMPICS NEWS
August 13, 2008
More Medals for Team U.S.A.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps makes Olympic history and the women's gymnastics team earns a silver medal
The Greatest Olympian of All Time
Michael Phelps had a busy morning at the Beijing Water Cube on August 13. He swam two races, and won more gold medals. He broke two more world records, and got himself a new title: the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. He now has five gold medals in these Olympics, and 11 in his career, moving past Mark Spitz, U.S. track and field legend Carl Lewis, ex-Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, and Finish distance runner Paavo Nurmi for the all-time record.
 |  PAUL GILHAM—GETTY IMAGES U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps proudly displays one of his many gold medals. |
Phelps' mother and sister were there to cheer him on. "I have to keep telling myself, 'He hasn't just won more gold medals than any American,'" said Phelps' sister Hilary Phelps, 30. "He has more than anyone in the world!"
As "The Star-Spangled Banner" played at the medal ceremony, Phelps finally had time to take it all in. "I was just sort of trying to focus on my next race, but you know, I just kept thinking, 'Wow, Greatest Olympian of All Time," says Phelps. "It's a pretty cool title, I guess."
It's Silver for the Women's Gymnastics Team"I don't know what happened. I thought my feet were under me ... and next thing I know, I was on my back." That's where Alicia Sacramone found herself after her second tumbling pass on the floor exercise on Wednesday. It was Sacramone's second fall of the meet, and may have ultimately cost the U.S. women the team gold.
 HARRY HOW—GETTY IMAGES U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson shakes hands with Cheng Fei of China, whose team won the gold. | |
Sacramone and her teammates—Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Chellsie Memmel, Samantha Peszek and Bridget Sloan—ended up with a perfectly respectable silver. They were 2.375 points behind the first-place team, hometown favorite China. "A gold medal would have been a little better," said Liukin.
New Scoring HurdlesThe U.S.'s performance might be a testament to the difficulties of competing under a new scoring system that rewards gymnasts for packing their programs with difficult skills. The U.S. team lost two members to injury on the men's side, and two gymnasts of the women's team are competing injured. (Read about the U.S. men's surprising bronze medal win, "For the US Men, It's as Good as Gold.")
The once perfect 10.0 no longer exists. Instead, the scores are now a combination of two numbers—the first for how difficult a gymnast's skills are, and a second for how well those skills are executed. The total can now range from 10.0 all the way to 17-something. "You have to do a bigger variety of difficult skills now," says Bart Conner, an Olympic gold medalist from the 1984 Games.
The new hurdles created by the scoring system may be pushing some athletes too far. Peszek strained an ankle earlier this week. Memmel is a former world champion who excels on the beam and bars. But she turned her ankle in training prior to leaving for Beijing, and could only compete on the uneven bars. Had she been healthy, Memmel's presence may have kept the U.S. in the gold medal hunt against the Chinese. Her replacement Sacramone is not known as a beam specialist.
Out of BoundsIt's not just injuries that hurt the U.S. team. On the floor exercise, all three Americans stepped out of bounds, earning automatic deductions. It's been a recurring problem for the hard-tumbling U.S. women. "We love to fly, we love to tumble really hard," said Johnson after the qualifying round on Sunday. "Honestly, we do have a problem stepping out of bounds."
For now, navigating the technical challenges presented by the scoring system remains the best way to the top of the medal stand. And while it may be too late for most of America's female gymnasts to now savor gold, Johnson and Liukin remain at the top of the lineup for the women's individual all-around event Friday. They hope to stand side-by-side on the podium, celebrating gold and silver.
