Eight of a kind

BEIJING -- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Yep, Michael Phelps got them all. Phelps wrapped up the greatest Olympics anyone has ever had, capturing his record-breaking eighth gold medal Sunday by helping the United States win the 400-meter medley relay -- in yet another world-record time, too.

"Nothing is impossible," Phelps said. "With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that's something I learned and something that helped me."

Phelps swam the third leg, the butterfly, the same stroke he won Saturday for No. 7, which tied Mark Spitz's Olympics record and won him a $1 million bonus from a sponsor. This victory pushed him past Spitz, alone with the mark of most gold medals at a single Olympics. He'd already claimed the title of most career golds a few days before; his tally is up to 14, five ahead of Spitz and others.

"Epic," said Spitz, whose record stood since Munich in 1972, 13 years before Phelps was born. "It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time."

That's it for this meet, though. He's finally done after nine dazzling days at the Water Cube. Look out, London, because who knows what Phelps will plan for an encore in 2012.

Also at the Water Cube, 41-year-old Dara Torres came oh-so-close to capturing a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle, finishing second by 0.01 seconds. Still, silver was terrific for the mom who thought she'd retired a few years ago, only to dive back in and become America's first five-time swimming Olympian.

Then Torres was part of the 400 medley relay squad that finished behind Australia. That silver upped her total to three medals here and 12 for her career. In the morning's other final, Oussama Mellouli won Tunisia's first Olympic swimming gold medal, denying Aussie Grant Hackett's bid for a third consecutive title in the 1,500-meter freestyle.

With 32 medals still to be decided Sunday, the United States is atop the medals table with 57. China was second with 49 and first in gold with 27; the U.S. team has 17, nearly half by Phelps.

Track and field

In the men's 20-kilometer walk, Russia's Valeriy Borchin won, then collapsed soon after and was taken away on a stretcher. After medical attention for dehydration, he was back on his feet.

Valerie Vili, the reigning world outdoor and indoor champion, won the women's shot put, giving New Zealand its first gold medal in track and field since 1976.

Nataliia Dobrynska won the gold medal in women's heptathlon, leading a gold-silver finish for Ukraine. American Hyleas Fountain got the bronze.

Men's basketball

An emotional Yao Ming scored 25 points to lead China past Dirk Nowitzki and Germany 59-55 to reach the brink of the medal round -- but you would've thought they'd clinched a medal by the way they celebrated afterward.

"We fought hard to the end," said Yi Jianlian of the New Jersey Nets, who added nine points and 11 rebounds. "Now we need to keep pushing ahead."

Manu Ginobili scored 32 and Luis Scola added 20, leading reigning Olympic champion Argentina past winless Iran 97-82, and Andrew Bogut had 22 and eight rebounds to help Australia past European champion Russia 95-80.

Mindaugas Lukauskis scored 20 points to keep Lithuania undefeated with an 86-73 victory against Croatia, and African champion Angola dropped to 0-4 with a 102-61 thrashing by Greece.

Softball

The American juggernaut crushed another opponent, with Jessica Mendoza hitting her third home run in two days and Jennie Finch pitching five shutout innings for a 7-0 victory over Taiwan. They've outscored their foes 36-1, have allowed just four hits in 29 innings, and have now won 19 straight Olympic games.

In other games, Japan beat China 3-0, Australia beat the Netherlands 8-0 and Venezuela, playing in its first Olympics, stunned Canada 2-0.

Tennis

Roger Federer is going home with a gold medal. The Williams sisters could, too.

Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka took the men's doubles title, while Venus and Serena Williams clinched at least a silver medal in doubles.

The Williamses beating Ukraine's Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko to advance to the gold-medal match against Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual. The Williams sisters improved to 9-0 lifetime in Olympic doubles. They won the gold medal at Sydney in 2000 but didn't play doubles in 2004 because Serena was hurt.

Federer and Wawrinka beat Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Federer closed it out with a service winner, threw up his arms and began hopping, then hugged his partner. This should take help salve finally losing his No. 1 status to Rafael Nadal on Monday.

Baseball

It was another one-run game for the Americans, although this time they wound up on top -- after erasing a four-run deficit.

Brian Barden homered and had a tying double, then Terry Tiffee doubled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the seventh in a 5-4 victory over Canada.

Barden played in place of injured second baseman Jayson Nix a day after Nix fouled a ball off his left eye and needed micro surgery that will keep him out the remainder of the Olympics.

The Netherlands beat China 6-4 and South Korea beat Japan 5-3.

Fencing

The U.S. trio of Emily Cross, Erinn Smart and Hannah Thompson settled for silver in team foil, losing the final match to Russia 28-11. It's the first ever for Americans in women's foil and the first for the U.S. in all of foil since 1960.

"I don't think we even expected this to turn out as it did," Smart said.

Beach volleyball

Two U.S. men's teams remain on course for a showdown in the finals.

Reigning world champions and heavy gold-medal favorites Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of the United States overcame mental mistakes, mis-hits and an 0-6 deficit in the first-to-15 final set to beat a Swiss pair.

Later, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal had a much easier time getting past a Spain team.

Diving

China's bid for a Phelpsian sweep of the diving events continued, with Guo Jingjing somersaulting and twisting off the 3-meter springboard, then knifing through the water with barely a ripple to take the lead after the semifinals. She's seeking her second straight gold.

American Nancilea Foster was fourth and teammate Christina Loukas was seventh.

No country has swept the diving medals since the United States did in 1952, but there were only four events then.

Water polo

Do you believe in ... the U.S. men's water polo team?

After raising doubt with a loss to Serbia, they showed strong defense in knocking off world No. 1 Croatia 7-5. The Croats came in having won three games by a total of 15 goals.

"They've got to know now that if they play like that, they can win this thing," U.S. coach Terry Schroeder said.

The Americans must knock off Germany to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.

Men's soccer

The semifinals are set: Nigeria vs. Belgium and Brazil vs. Argentina.

Belgium beat Italy 3-2 and Nigeria beat Ivory Coast 2-0. Brazil beat Cameroon 2-0 and Argentina beat the Netherlands 2-1.