Disclaimer: The 2012 London Olympic events take place five hours ahead of US EST, but Us Weekly is reporting the results as they happen and before they air on NBC during primetime hours.
Michael Phelps only needed one more Olympic medal to earn himself a place in history — and he did it!
After winning the silver medal in the 200 butterfly earlier in the day, Phelps tied former Soviet Gymnast Larisa Latynina for the world record of most Olympic medals. But after competing won in the 4×200 freestyle relay in the London Games Tuesday, the three-time Olympian took home the gold, bring his total to 19.
Teammates Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens gave Phelps, 27, the lead he need to win the race. France earned the the silver medal and China won the bronze.
"We all wanted to do our part. We all wanted to make sure we had our lead for him so when he dove in, he didn't have to work," Lochte, 27, told Us Weekly after the race. "He knew he was set on Gold so that's what we did and we were happy with the outcome."
And Phelps was smiling "ear to ear" when he briefly chatted with Us after his big win.
"I started smiling like 20 minutes to go! It's the first time I think I've ever done that in a race. I'm kinda at a loss for words right now," he said. " Everything is kind of happening. Being able to do something nobody has ever done before and that's what I've always said I wanted to do. It's been a lot. The last couple of days I've been a lot more relaxed. The very first day I was super uptight and super serious. But the last couple of days I've just been laughing and having fun. And that's what I said I wanted to do in the beginning, and it happened."
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