2004 Summer Olympic Games
Phelps' dominance has brought comparisons to former swimming great Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a world record. Phelps had the chance to break that record in the 2004 Athens Olympics by competing in eight swimming events: the 200m freestyle, the 100m butterfly, the 200m butterfly, the 100m backstroke, the 200m backstroke, the 200m individual medley, the 400m individual medley, the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay.
Unfortunately, his 4x100m freestyle relay team only won a bronze medal due to a lack luster effort by teammate Ian Crocker, and he personally placed for bronze in the 200m freestyle. Thus, he fell just short of that record. However, he did win eight medals in one Olympics, a feat only achieved by Aleksandr Dityatin, a gymnast, in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
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