2008 Olympics Beijing - Phelps Record-Breaking Eighth Medal

The journey ended, fittingly, with Michael Phelps not in the pool but above it, cheering on his teammates. The greatest Olympian of all time may indeed now hover over his sport, but he could not have achieved such heights without a little help from his friends. And this morning, in the last race on the last day of the greatest swimming feat in the history of the Games, his friends brought it home and laid it on the velvet pillow. The final gold.

Eight is enough.

"I'm more at a loss for words than I was yesterday," Phelps told NBC after breaking Mark Spitz's mark of seven golds in a single Olympics. "The help from these guys made it all possible. ... It's amazing to be part of this."

And it was an amazing finish, with Phelps, swimming third in the 400-meter medley relay, using his superior butterfly stroke to surge his team out of third place to hand a small lead to Jason Lezak. Then Phelps rose from the pool and, alongside his teammates, watched his destiny unfold. It was close. Nerve-racking. The Americans were flanked by the Japanese and the Australians, pushing them on both sides.

But when it was over, Lezak, swimming the freestyle, touched the wall first, seven-tenths of a second ahead of the Aussies, in a world-record time of 3:29.34, and history fell from the sky and splashed in the water.

The crowd went crazy. Phelps shook his fists. He finally, finally was finished. Ulysses had come home. Eight gold medals in a single Games. In all the Olympiads staged in the modern era, no one ever had done that.

"The Phelpsian Feat," Aaron Peirsol, who swam the leadoff leg in the relay, declared to the TV cameras. "We've all heard of the Spitzian Feat. It's a new one now."

The Phelpsian Feat?

Eight is enough.