BEIJING — Michael Phelps has advanced to the 200-meter butterfly final as the fastest qualifier, about an hour after winning his third Olympic gold medal of the games in the 200 freestyle.

The American earned the top seed Tuesday, tying the Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 53.70 seconds that he set Monday during preliminaries in Beijing.

Phelps enters Wednesday morning's final as the world record-holder and defending Olympic champion and will be seeking his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Games.