Phelps goes for 11 gold medals, U.S. women fight China

Tuning in in time for another NBC audio problem, you can hear a producer talking for a few seconds as they go to the swimming arena before Dan Hicks comes on. Rowdy Gaines with him per usual, it's all Michael Phelps tonight--he's at 9 gold medals, likely to become the winningest Olympian of all time within the next 20 minutes.

First up are the men's 100M freestyle semis, Jason Lezak vs. Alain Bernard (who has his name printed on his swim cap) rematch; Bernard in front by a lot coming down the last 50M, here comes Lezak--finishes third though, as Bernard sets a new world record.

Second semis has Garrett Weber-Gale, who won the U.S. trials in this and the 50M event; Dutch veteran Van den Hoggenban as well. Speedy first 50, Aussies just destroying everyone, Sullivan grabs his own WR back, American well out of it.

Now, 200M freestyle final, with Katie Hoff going for gold. Hoff trailing early, not a great start. Catches up with the leader a bit after the first turn, in 3rd; Italian chick turning it on, Hoff looks to be in like 4th now. It's a blistering fast pace, Italian still out front; Hoff fighting the Chinese swimmer for bronze, looks like she'll lose to her--and she does, Pellegrini wins gold in a new WR. Disappointing; Rowdy is amazed, says the medalists all broke the WR.

Now--the men's 200M butterfly, Phelps a huge favorite, they're expecting him to not only win but also set a WR. Shocker if he doesn't get it done, Dan says. Phelps' coach is laughing in the stands. Hmmmm. All it takes is for someone else to have the race of their life and for Phelps to be off....

And they're off, Rowdy says it'll look like a race for a while, but then Phelps will just blow past everyone. He's in 2nd after the first 50M; he seems to leap out in front, behind the WR pace though, in 1st after 100M. Rowdy says watch and enjoy the last turn; now a bit ahead of WR pace. The NZ guy he trains with is keeping up, and now he's behind WR pace; now he's accelerating--and looks like he barely sets another WR. This one was a tougher one though than people thought; Rowdy says he thinks the race hurt him a lot more than he thought it would, wanted to go 151.

Wow, now the winningest Olympian of all time with his fourth gold of this Olympics, tenth overall. And he's only halfway through!

And now to the women's gymnastics team final. Tim says China has a higher start value on every event--which means the U.S. has to be more perfect. Hmmm. To commercial, VISA immediately congratulates Phelps.

China up first on the vault, kindof a big hop but not bad. An okay score. Second one is much better, a huge landing that she has a little hop on. U.S. team is right there on the sidelines, they're paired together; Al says it's interesting that they're interacting with each other. 16 for her, Tim thinks it should've been higher. Third gymnast, who was a late sub, just nails her jump, she's really small and has little international experience but a huge jump. Al brings up the are you 16 thing, invites us to judge for ourselves--yeah, cause Americans are so good at judging the ages of Asian women!

Sheesh. Now, the U.S. team, 15.45 average for the Chinese which is higher than what they had in the prelims, where they finished first. Russians on the uneven bars, let's not forget about them.... This has got to be NBC's biggest night of the Olympics in terms of A-list events.

A little bit like waiting for Godot, Al says. I wonder what percentage of the audience has any idea what that means; what percentage of his partners? U.S. should have a cushion after this, says Tim. They're very bouncy, look grim more than anything else. Wow, Shawn Johnson is bringing her stare of death; her coach is Chinese. They all look pretty good in warmup, hope it carries over. If they do really well here, I think they'll win gold--the good feelings will carry over. If they're shaky, could be big trouble.

Nice first jump from Bridget Sloan, about as good as she can do it says Tim. She looks more relieved then everything, gets workmanlike hugs from her teammates. Just a 15.2 though. Shawn Johnson, screws up the landing a bit, crosses her legs; looks worse, as Tim says. Hmm, a 16.0, nice score for her. Alicia Sacramone, who I think will do well, goes last. Oh yeah, she nails it; nicely done, just a small hop on the end. Team couldn't have asked for more, says Tim.

Yeah, they're okay now; off to the next event. 15.675, U.S. in front of China, but Russia had a good score on the higher-scoring uneven bars so they're in first. They show Romania, for a sec; Al wants to know why they're not competitive anymore. Tim says their coach said the kids are westernized now, have to be treated differently.

U.S. over on uneven bars, up first; no mistakes like in prelims, says Tim. Chellsie Memmel up first. She looks good, very brisk. Yeah! Nails it, including the landing. Weird, unlike the exhuberant guys last night, the women are definitely all tight; guess the difference between being the favorites, and just happy to be there. Hmm, Johnson's legs are shaky. 15.725 for Memmel. Wow, Johnson looks great early; she's just in a different league, a great routine.

Nastia Liukin, her dad's an Olympic champ. 15.35 for Johnson, surprisingly low; Tim calls it a little harsh. Wow, she looks great, is so tall; nails her trickiest release, analysts loving it; yeah, she nails it! That was great, she's so effortlessly happy, and her teammates for the first time are showing real emotion. Tim says this should be close to a 17, which we haven't seen yet. Better the routine, longer it's been taking says Tim. Whoah--a 16.9, the highest so far in Beijing! That's awesome, Tim wanted something higher though.

Crazy Bela Karolyi in the studio with Bob Costas....

Back watching, Phelps easily won gold medal #11 as the U.S. destroyed everyone else in the 4x200M relay with a WR that was like 3 seconds faster than the old one. Gymnastics seems to have become bizarre, first a Chinese gymnast, than an American fell off the balance beam. Everyone's routine seems to be ragged, lots of close calls. China's in first by more than a point, not sure what it'll be like when this third event is done. Wonder how the Russians are doing....

Coach Marta Karolyi pumping up the team, Johnson batting clean-up here. A big score is in here, I think. Liukin gest as 15.975, a good score. Johnson just nails her opening, is very precise and confident. Wow; just looks a lot better than everyone else. Oh yeah, nails her dismount; a great routine, U.S. team looks a bit shell-shocked but this will help a lot. Monster-tough says Tim. 16.175, U.S. is now 1 point behind China, going to the floor exercises; everyone else is waaaaay behind.

U.S. has to go first; big drawback, China can just play it safe if their lead grows. Let's not forget Japan wiped out more than a point lead yesterday against the U.S. Nice opening for Scaramone, and then a big fall--that may be it, says Tim, a disaster of epic proportions, huge cushion for China. Shake it off.... She goes out of bounds at the end, looks devastated.

Likuin next, starts off out of bounds; then goes really high on a jump. Rest of her routine seems really good, a step at the very end. Pretty ragged, I think mentally they've accepted silver. Wow, they're already crying over on the sidelines; and Johnson still to go. 15.2; Tim says China has to totally fall apart for the U.S. to have any shot. Not gonna happen.

Johnson up, and oh, she steps out of bounds; Tim shocked. They she attacks the rest with a vengeance. She's so good though, should win the overall title over the next few days.

China just needs to average 14.75 to win gold, just getting through the routines will be enough says Tim. Fueled by the crowd, I think they'll do better than that. They're just soaring through the air, so light. They've even got some personality and fun in the routines, vs. the U.S. which was so workmanlike. Crowd roars, first routine was clean. Efli notes the performances here by the Chinese are different from years past, they're really for the people, crowd-pleasers.

Next up, light and fun; music choice is so much better than the U.S. too. They're gonna blow us out; deserve to win, too. Huge roar from the crowd, a few stumbles but overall good, Elfi calls it fantastic. Final Chinese gymnast, just an amazing first run, crowd roars--this one's got traditional Chinese opera music.

Celebration has started for China, U.S. huddles up--two very different groups. China did a great job says Tim, that's all there is to it; they earned it. China wins by 2.375, a big win by gymnastics standards.

Back to the studio, and Phelps and his teammates talk about smashing everyone else in the relay--wow, first relay to ever go under 7 minutes. Phelps says he kept tearing up thinking about all the medals during his last medal ceremony. Also says his googles were messed up during the 200M butterfly, that's why he flipped them off afterwards.

Bela hammers on the underage allegation against China, says they deserved to win on the floor but team not eligible. Wow, China's got 14 golds to our 9; U.S. still out front in total medals, 26 to 22.