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Posted at 12:08 a.m., Saturday, August 2, 2008

Olympics: Phelps primed to break Spitz's record

By ALEX KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer

SINGAPORE — Michael Phelps is aiming to show the world something its "never seen" at the Beijing Olympics and surpass Mark Spitz's long-standing record of seven golds at a single games.

Phelps, 23, won six golds at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and is aiming to surpass both that mark and the seven-gold effort of Spitz at the 1972 Munich games.

"What he did was the greatest Olympic performance of all time," Phelps said Saturday from Singapore, where the U.S. team has been getting in its late training ahead of the Olympics beginning Aug. 8.

"I'm looking to do something different that the sport has never seen."

The swim team is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Monday.

Phelps, sporting a Spitz-like handlebar mustache, said he was primed to deliver his best in China.

"I've had some of the best training I've done," Phelps said. "I've been swimming well. I've been feeling good in the water."

Phelps will be competing in eight events at Beijing. The five individual events are the 200 meter freestyle, the 200 and 400 individual medleys and the 100 and 200 butterfly. He will also compete in all three relays: the 400 and 800 freestyle and the 400 medley.

He holds the world record in all those individual events, except the 100 butterfly, as well as in both freestyle relays.

Phelps has broken 25 world records compared to Spitz's 33. They are the only swimmers to have won seven golds at a major international meet.

At last year's world championships in Australia, Phelps reached seven and was denied the chance to go for eighth victory when a teammate was disqualified from the preliminaries of a relay the U.S. was heavily favored to win.