It’s official. Michael Phelps is now the Greatest Olympic Athlete in the history of the Modern Olympic Games. There is no question, no argument to the contrary. He stands alone as the sole Olympic athlete to win 14 Gold Medals overall and has won more Gold Medals in a single Olympic Games than any other athlete of the Modern Olympic Games — it simply cannot be denied that he is the greatest. With a little help from his teammates Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak, Phelpsie swam his way into the history books by winning the Gold Medal in the Men’s 400-meter Medley Relay in, yet again, World Record time:

Michael Phelps locked arms with his three teammates, as though they were in a football huddle calling a play, then hugged each one of them. It took a team to make him the grandest of Olympic champions. And one last big push from Phelps himself. Going hard right to the end of a mesmerizing nine days in Beijing, Phelps helped the Americans come from behind Sunday in a race they’ve never lost at the Olympics, cheering from the deck as Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Phelps’ history-making eighth gold medal of these games. “Everything was accomplished,” he said. “I will have the medals forever.” Phelps sure did his part to win No. 8, eclipsing Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games. Aaron Peirsol got the Americans off to the lead in the backstroke, but Brendan Hansen — a major disappointment in this Olympic year — slowed them down with only the third-fastest breaststroke leg. By the time Phelps dived in for the butterfly, the U.S. was trailing Australia and Japan. That’s when he really went to work. With his long arms whirling across the water like propellers, Phelps caught the two guys ahead of him on the return lap and passed off to Lezak a lead of less than a second for the freestyle. The Australians countered with former world record-holder Eamon Sullivan as their anchor. “I was thinking not to blow the lead,” Lezak said. “I was really nervous.” Sullivan tried to chase down Lezak and appeared to be gaining as they came to the wall, but Lezak finished in 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds — Phelps’ seventh world record in his personal Great Haul of China. The Aussies took silver in 3:30.04, also under the old world record of 3:30.68 set by the U.S. in Athens four years ago, while Japan held on for the bronze … Spitz’s iconic performance was surpassed by a swimmer fitting of this generation: a 23-year-old from Baltimore who loves hip-hop music, texting with his buddies and wearing his cap backward. “I don’t even know what to feel right now,” Phelps said. “There’s so much emotion going through my head and so much excitement. I kind of just want to see my mom.” Debbie Phelps was sitting in the stands at the Water Cube, tears streaming down her cheeks, her two daughters by her side. After getting his gold, Phelps quickly found his family, climbing through a horde of photographers to give all three a kiss. Mom put her arm around his neck and gave him a little extra hug. Her son sure earned it. “The Beijing Olympics has witnessed the greatest Olympian of all time — Michael Phelps of the USA,” the announcer said as Phelps posed with his teammates. The Americans still had to wait a couple of tantalizing minutes for the official results to be posted. Finally, it flashed on the board. World record. Gold medal No. 8. “Nothing is impossible,” Phelps said. “With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that’s something I learned and something that helped me” … “Without the help of my teammates this isn’t possible,” he said. “I was able to be a part of three relays and we were able to put up a solid team effort and we came together as one unit. For the three Olympics I’ve been a part of, this is by far the closest men’s team that we’ve ever had. I didn’t know everybody coming into this Olympics, but I feel going out I know every single person very well. The team that we had is the difference.” Phelps set seven world records and one Olympic record, doing a personal best time in every event … Phelps won some races by ridiculously large margins, others with the closest of finishes — most memorably, his seventh gold by one-hundredth of a second over Serbia’s Milorad Cavic in the 100 fly. Along the way, he became the winningest Olympian ever and left China with 14 career golds — five more than anyone else with at least one more Olympics to go. “It’s been nothing but an upwards roller-coaster and it’s been nothing but fun,” Phelps said.

“Nothing but fun” — that is exactly the kind of attitude that can take a person far in life. You know, even tho I said that I could “feel” that Phelpsie was going to win his 8 Gold Medals at these Summer Olympic Games, a little bit of me mebbe kinda doubted it a little … I actually did a little jump when I got word that he won his Gold last night. Much congrats and lurve goes out to Michael Phelps for giving us a thrilling Olympic Games thus far … he was deffo the story for the first half of the Games and we still have the second half to look forward to. Amazing, he is just amazing … and very deserving of every accolade he receives for his incredible efforts and accomplishments. Michael Phelps is the Gold Standard … future Olympic athletes will be looking to him as the new benchmark of Olympic Glory. He is deffo the man.

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