Phelps sets medals record
LONDON — Five things to know about Tuesday, Day 4 of the London Olympics:
• Swimmer Phelps collects two more medals to break record.
• Raisman lifts U.S. women to gymnastics gold.
• U.S. men roll to 110-63 win over Tunisia in hoops.
• Female Saudi judoka cleared to fight.
• IOC, FINA defend China's teen swimmer.
Michael Phelps' first gold medal of the London Olympics was one special prize.
The American swimming star broke the Olympic medals record as the United States romped to a dominating win in 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
With 19 career medals spanning three Olympics, Phelps moved one ahead of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who got her haul in 1956, 1960 and 1964. He helped the relay team to the victory after settling for silver when he glided at the end of the 200 butterfly earlier Tuesday.
The United States team of Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer, Ricky Berens and Phelps on the anchor leg won in 6 minutes, 59.70 seconds. France took the silver in 7:02.77, while China was third in 7:06.30.
Phelps now has 15 golds, two silvers and two bronzes. He still has three more events in London before he retires.
“It has been a pretty amazing career,” the 27-year-old Phelps said, “but we still have a couple races to go.”
South Africa's Chad le Clos edged Phelps in the 200 fly, and American Allison Schmitt won the women's 200 freestyle.
The U.S. women's gymnastics team also had a big day. Jordyn Wieber kicked it off with a tremendous vault and Aly Raisman closed it out with a solid floor exercise.
Team USA routed silver medalist Russia and everybody else on its way to its first Olympic title in women's gymnastics since 1996. The U.S. score of 183.596 made its final event more like a coronation.
When the floor score for Raisman flashed, the Americans screamed and a chant of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” rang out around the arena. The women held up their index fingers for the cameras — just in case anyone had a doubt.
“We knew we could do it. We just had to pull out all the stops,” Raisman said.
Wieber went first and did perhaps the best one she's ever done, getting great height in the air, her legs locked together. When her feet slammed into the mat on landing, she threw up her arms and smiled broadly. Anyone wondering how she was coping with the devastation of missing out on the all-around competition had their answer.
The U.S. men's basketball team got off to a slow start against Tunisia, then took off when coach Mike Krzyzewski went to his reserves.
Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love scored 16 points apiece to lead Team USA to a 110-63 victory. Kevin Durant added 13 and Anthony Davis had 12 for the Americans, who will face Nigeria on Thursday night.
Zara Phillips gave the royal family plenty to cheer about, helping team Britain to a second-place equestrian finish behind Germany. Princes William and Harry and William's wife, Kate, were in the stands to watch their cousin as she competed in the show jumping final portion of Olympic eventing.
Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser rallied for a 19-21, 21-16, 15-13 victory against Spain and remain unbeaten in the preliminary round of the beach volleyball tournament.On the women's side, Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy needed three sets to beat the Netherlands 21-15, 21-12, 15-8.
The United States clinched first place in its group in women's soccer with a 1-0 win over North Korea.
Andy Roddick spent less than an hour on the court during an emphatic loss to Novak Djokovic. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga needed a much longer run to advance against Milos Raonic.Roddick lost 6-2, 6-1 to Djokovic in 54 minutes, leaving the 29-year-old American to fend off more questions about retirement.
Clay Stanley scored 16 points and the U.S. men's team improved to 2-0 in preliminary pool play with a three-set victory over Germany.
Ryan Bailey and Peter Varellas scored three goals apiece and the United States recovered from a slow start to beat Romania 10-8 in the men's tournament.
