Michael Phelps reacts on the podium after winning a gold medal in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay. The gold early today in Beijing was Phelps' record eighth in this Olympics.

Michael Phelps celebrates after winning his eighth gold medal, in the 4x100-meter medley relay. Phelps passed Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics today in Beijing.

Beijing ? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Yep, Michael Phelps got them all.

Phelps wrapped up the greatest Olympics anyone ever has had, capturing his record-breaking eighth gold medal today by helping the United States win the 400-meter medley relay – in yet another world-record time, too.

“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.”

Phelps swam the third leg, the butterfly, the same stroke he won Saturday for No. 7, which tied Mark Spitz’s Olympics record and won him a $1 million bonus from a sponsor. This victory pushed him past Spitz, alone with the mark of most gold medals at a single Olympics. He already had claimed the title of most career golds a few days before; his tally is up to 14, five ahead of Spitz and others.

“Epic,” said Spitz, whose record stood since Munich in 1972, 13 years before Phelps was born. “It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he’s maybe the greatest athlete of all time.”

That’s it for this meet, though. He’s finally done after nine dazzling days at the Water Cube. Look out, London, because who knows what Phelps will plan for an encore in 2012.

Phelps’ fabulous finish topped a busy middle weekend of the Beijing Games that also featured Usain Bolt’s dash to a world record in the 100 meters Saturday night.

Bolt left no doubt he’s the world’s fastest man – on land, that is – by winning the 100 meters in 9.69. It could’ve been faster had he not eased up to get a head start on his victory lap.

“When I saw the time, I’m celebrating,” Bolt said.

Also this morning, Romania’s Constantina Tomescu-Dita ran away from the rest of the leaders near the halfway mark of the women’s marathon, winning by 22 seconds. Although skies were grey, it was mostly clouds, keeping temperatures down to the delight of runners. Smog wasn’t a factor, to the delight of organizers.

And, also at the Water Cube, 41-year-old Dara Torres came oh-so-close to capturing a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle, finishing second by 0.01 seconds. Still, silver was terrific for the mom who thought she’d retired a few years ago, only to dive back in and become America’s first five-time swimming Olympian.

Then Torres was part of the 400 medley relay squad that finished behind Australia. That silver upped her total to three medals here and 12 for her career. In the morning’s other final, Oussama Mellouli won Tunisia’s first Olympic swimming gold medal, denying Aussie Grant Hackett’s bid for a third consecutive title in the 1,500-meter freestyle.

With 32 medals still to be decided today, the United States is atop the medals table with 57. China was second with 49 and first in gold with 27; the U.S. team has 17, nearly half by Phelps.

Track and field

Bolt got out of the blocks slow and crossed the line strutting. That tells you how good he was in between.

Before the finish line, the 6-foot-5 champion had his long arms spread, palms up, and pounded his chest. His left shoelace was even untied.

The clock initially showed 9.68, then was changed while reggae music blared and Bolt’s party continued around the track.

Bolt broke the mark he set in May by 0.03. Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago was second by 0.2 – unlike the pool, this constituted more than a body length – and American Walter Dix was third.

U.S. record-holder Tyson Gay didn’t make it out of the semifinals. Asafa Powell, who held the world record for three years until Bolt came along, was fifth for the second straight Olympics.

In the men’s 20-kilometer walk, Russia’s Valeriy Borchin won, then collapsed soon after and was taken away on a stretcher. After medical attention for dehydration, he was back on his feet.

Valerie Vili, the reigning world outdoor and indoor champion, won the women’s shot put, giving New Zealand its first gold medal in track and field since 1976.

Nataliia Dobrynska won the gold medal in women’s heptathlon, leading a gold-silver finish for Ukraine. American Hyleas Fountain got the bronze.

Men’s volleyball

The U.S. beat China in three sets, but the bigger news was coach Hugh McCutcheon rejoining the team a week after a knife attack that killed his father-in-law and wounded his mother-in-law. The woman, Barbara Bachman, arrived in her home state of Minnesota on Friday for treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

After the final point, Riley Salmon embraced his coach. McCutheon joined in a team high-five on the court.

“I wouldn’t have come back if I wasn’t ready to come back,” McCutcheon said. “It’s what I do – get out on the sidelines and get the boys fired up.”

The Americans went 3-0 without their coach, clinching a spot in the quarterfinals before he returned.

Softball

The American juggernaut crushed another opponent, with Jessica Mendoza hitting her third home run in two days and Jennie Finch pitching five shutout innings for a 7-0 victory over Taiwan. They’ve outscored their foes 36-1, have allowed just four hits in 29 innings, and have now won 19 straight Olympic games.

“USA is too strong to defeat,” Taiwan coach Chang Chia-Hsing said.

In other games, Japan beat China 3-0, Australia beat the Netherlands 8-0 and Venezuela, playing in its first Olympics, stunned Canada 2-0.

Tennis

Roger Federer is going home with a gold medal. The Williams sisters could, too.

Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka took the men’s doubles title, while Venus and Serena Williams clinched at least a silver medal in doubles.

The Williamses beating Ukraine’s Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko to advance to the gold-medal match against Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual. The Williams sisters improved to 9-0 lifetime in Olympic doubles. They won the gold medal at Sydney in 2000 but didn’t play doubles in 2004 because Serena was hurt.

Federer and Wawrinka beat Sweden’s Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Federer closed it out with a service winner, threw up his arms and began hopping, then hugged his partner. This should take help salve finally losing his No. 1 status to Rafael Nadal on Monday.

Russia will win women’s singles with countrymates Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva squaring off. Dementieva beat another Russian, Vera Zvonareva, and Safina knocked out China’s Li Na.

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who have won all four Grand Slam championships, won the bronze in men’s doubles.

Novak Djokovic beat American James Blake for bronze in men’s singles.

Baseball

It was another one-run game for the Americans, although this time they wound up on top – after erasing a four-run deficit.

Brian Barden homered and had a tying double, then Terry Tiffee doubled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the seventh in a 5-4 victory over Canada.

Barden played in place of injured second baseman Jayson Nix a day after Nix fouled a ball off his left eye and needed micro surgery that will keep him out the remainder of the Olympics.

The Netherlands beat China 6-4 and South Korea beat Japan 5-3.

Shooting

Vincent Hancock, a 19-year-old member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, won a shoot-off to claim the gold in skeet.

American Keith Sanderson was in first place after qualifying in the men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol, but wound up fifth. Ukraine’s Oleksandr Petriv won it.

Boxing

Americans Shawn Estrada and Luis Yanez lost, leaving only two U.S. fighters in the tournament.

Yanez tied his match against Mongolia’s Serdamba Purevdorj after three rounds, but couldn’t pull it out.

Estrada lost to James Degale, the hard-punching Brit known as “Chunky.”

Russian Matvey Korobov lost his first fight in five years, going down in a middleweight bout against Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan, the welterweight winner in Athens.

Fencing

The U.S. trio of Emily Cross, Erinn Smart and Hannah Thompson settled for silver in team foil, losing the final match to Russia 28-11. It’s the first ever for Americans in women’s foil and the first for the U.S. in all of foil since 1960.

“I don’t think we even expected this to turn out as it did,” Smart said.

Beach volleyball

Two U.S. men’s teams remain on course for a showdown in the finals.

Reigning world champions and heavy gold-medal favorites Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of the United States overcame mental mistakes, mis-hits and an 0-6 deficit in the first-to-15 final set to beat a Swiss pair.

Later, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal had a much easier time getting past a Spain team.

Diving

China’s bid for a Phelpsian sweep of the diving events continued, with Guo Jingjing somersaulting and twisting off the 3-meter springboard, then knifing through the water with barely a ripple to take the lead after the semifinals. She’s seeking her second straight gold.

American Nancilea Foster was fourth and teammate Christina Loukas was seventh.

No country has swept the diving medals since the United States did in 1952, but there were only four events then.

Rowing

American Michelle Guerette took silver in women’s single sculls, finishing behind Bulgaria’s Rumyana Neykova. Norway’s Olaf Tufte won his second straight men’s single sculls title.

Australia’s Drew Ginn and Duncan Free won men’s pair. Ginn won in Athens, too, but with a different partner. The Romanio duo of Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu won the women’s pair, bringing their combined career Olympic gold medal haul to a whopping nine. Andrunache has five and Susanu four from the pair and other events with different partners.

Twin sisters Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell won women’s double sculls, defending their Athens triumph by 0.01. Australia’s David Crawshay and Scott Brennan of Australia won the men’s double sculls.

Britain continued its dominance in men’s four rowing, winning gold for a third straight time.

Cycling

Teenager Taylor Phinney won’t be adding to his family’s medal collection just yet. The son of 1984 medalists Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney failed to qualify for the medal round in the individual pursuit, losing in a round-of-eight matchup. Britain’s Bradley Wiggins won the event for his second straight gold medal.

Two-time world champion Sarah Hammer failed to advance to the medal round in women’s pursuit, and fellow American Giddeon Massie failed to advance in keirin, which was won by Britain’s Chris Hoy.

With Hoy winning and countryman Ross Edgar taking silver, the British already have eight cycling medals, four of them gold.

Joan Llaneras of Spain won the men’s points race, adding that gold to the one he claimed in the event at Sydney in 2000 and the silver won in Athens four years ago.

Trampoline

Boing, boing, boing. That’s the bouncing of the trampoline and the sound of the Americans Chris Estrada and Erin Blanchard getting bounced out in qualifying.

“I was pretty calm until I got on the trampoline,” Estrada said. “Then the nerves hit.”

Water polo

Do you believe in … the U.S. men’s water polo team?

After raising doubt with a loss to Serbia, they showed strong defense in knocking off world No. 1 Croatia 7-5. The Croats came in having won three games by a total of 15 goals.

“They’ve got to know now that if they play like that, they can win this thing,” U.S. coach Terry Schroeder said.

The Americans must knock off Germany to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.

Wrestling

Canada’s Carol Huynh, a frequent world placewinner but never a champion, upset 2004 silver medalist Chiharu Icho of Japan to win the women’s 48-kilogram gold. She also became Canada’s first gold medalist in Beijing and her country’s first-ever champion in this sport, which has been around since the first Olympics in 1896. American Clarissa Chun lost a bronze-medal match.

Japan’s Saori Yoshida became the first women’s wrestler to win two Olympic gold medals, taking the 55 kg again by pinning 18-year-old Xu Li of China, who was trying to become the youngest Olympic champion in any discipline.

Weightlifting

American Cheryl Haworth was sixth in the women’s super heavyweight division. Jang Mi-ran of South Korea broke three world records on the way to gold and the unofficial title of the world’s strongest woman.

“I am a big girl but that’s a lot of weight,” said Haworth, who won a bronze medal in Sydney 2000.

Men’s soccer

The semifinals are set: Nigeria vs. Belgium and Brazil vs. Argentina.

Belgium beat Italy 3-2 and Nigeria beat Ivory Coast 2-0. Brazil beat Cameroon 2-0 and Argentina beat the Netherlands 2-1.

Sailing

The showdown between British star Ben Ainslie and young American Zach Railey in the first-ever medal race (they used to be decided on points) was postponed by a day after winds failed the racers in the Finn class. Fickle winds also prevented a British-Dutch battle for gold in the women’s Yngling class.

Badminton

Indonesia’s Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan won men’s doubles, defeating China’s Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in three sets. It was Indonesia’s first gold medal of the games and second of the day in this sport. Maria Kristin Yulianti won the bronze in women’s singles.

China’s Zhang Ning defended her singles title, knocking off top-seeded countrywoman Xie Xingfang in three sets.

Table tennis

So much for bronze. The U.S. women were ousted from the third-place playoff bracket by South Korea.

The second-seeded Germans will face the winner of the China-South Korea contest to be played later Saturday for men’s gold.

Women’s field hockey

The U.S. women got their first win of the tournament, beating winless New Zealand 4-1. With one game left, the Americans still have a chance of making the semifinal round.