Michael Phelps heads to the Beijing Olympics with the weight of expectation on his shoulders. It does not seem to be a matter of if Phelps will win gold but instead how many he will win. His performance in the 2007 World Championships has highlighted that providing he avoids any uncharacteristic mistakes, he can win gold in each of his individual disciplines. To break Spitz’s record he will be relying on his fellow American swimmers to perform in the relay events. The main challenge will be the 4x100m freestyle relay -the American relay team failed to make the final at the 2007 World Swimming Championships due to a false start in the semis. However if all goes as predicted than this will be a record-breaking Olympic Games for men’s swimming and Phelps will go down as the greatest swimmer in Olympic history.

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