BEIJING (AP) – There’s no such thing as a day off when you’re chasing history.

For Michael Phelps, this is as close as it gets.

Phelps is a perfect 5-for-5 in his quest to win a record eight medals, picking up two on Wednesday with a pair of world-record swims. He’ll still be in the pool Thursday, but there will be no medals on the line.

He had three races on Wednesday, also swimming a preliminary heat in the 200-meter individual medley in what was a long day for the star of these games.

“I’m just trying to get through everything,” he said. “It’s a lot of racing and it’s not easy.”

He gets a breather on Thursday when Phelps has no medals on the line. His only events are semifinal heats in the 200 IM and 100-meter butterfly.

He earned it after his showing Wednesday made him the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals. He also has five world records in five events at the Beijing Games.

Phelps won the 200-meter butterfly in the morning, and followed it an hour later by swimming leadoff in a runaway victory by the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team. The group shattered the old world mark by more than four seconds as the Americans became the first team ever to break the 7-minute barrier.

“He is just another person, but maybe from a different planet,” said Alexander Sukhorukov, who swam the anchor leg for the second-place Russians.

Phelps is now all alone at the top of the career golds list, with three more chances to stretch his lead before he leaves China.

But it’s no gimmee going forward: Phelps must beat good friend Ryan Lochte in the 200 IM. Phelps was sixth in preliminaries, while Lochte posted the fastest time.

For Lochte, he’s preparing for what could be a mission impossible. Aside from trying to beat Phelps in IM, he’s working toward a rematch with defending Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol in the 200 backstroke. The two Americans qualified 1-2 for the event in which they share the world record.

Lochte ended Peirsol’s seven-year winning streak in the 200 back at last year’s world championships in Australia, where he also took away Peirsol’s world record. The American duo resumed their rivalry resumed at the U.S. trials in July, when Peirsol avenged his loss.

Meanwhile, defending champion Amanda Beard failed to advance out of the 200 breaststroke prelims. The four-time Olympian was a sluggish 2.57 seconds off her personal best and left her 18th.

Her Olympic record was also lost, erased by teammate Rebecca Soni, who was more than a full second better than Beard’s mark of 2:23.37.

Eric Shanteau’s dramatic Olympic effort ended when he didn’t advance in the semifinals of the 200-meter breaststroke despite swimming his personal best.

Now he will return to Atlanta for surgery on the testicular cancer he was diagnosed with last month.

“It’s my best time, so I’m happy about that, but obviously it’s frustrating that I’m not going to be in the final,” he said. “I’m not going to let it weigh me down too much because I’ve got a much bigger battle to take care of in about two weeks.”

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Women’s Gymnastics



Alicia Sacramone made two mistakes – falling off the beam and to the mat on the floor exercise – to trigger an American collapse that handed China the gold medal.

Sacramone made her mistakes on the final two events, and Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson both stepped out of bounds on their ensuing floor routines. China finished with a score of 188.9 points for a blowout win over the U.S. of more than two points.

Now, Johnson and Liukin are looking ahead to Friday’s all-around competition, where they’re expected to battle each other for the gold to become just the third American to win the Olympic title.



Men’s Soccer



Promise Isaac and Victor Obinna scored to lead Nigeria over a short-handed United States team 2-1, earning a place in the quarterfinals and eliminating the Americans. The United States played a man short from the third minute when defender Michael Orozco was ejected for swinging his elbow into Solomon Okoronkwo’s chest while the players wrestled for the ball. Also advancing to the quarterfinals were the Netherlands, Cameroon, Belgium and Ivory Coast.



Boxing



Zou Shiming became a national hero for winning China’s first boxing medal with a bronze in Athens in 2004. The Chinese light flyweight began his effort for China’s first boxing gold medal in style with an 11-2 victory over Eduard Bermudez of Venezuela.

American Deontay Wilder won his first-round match in heavyweight boxing competition with a 10-4 decision over Abdeoaziz Touiobini of Algeria. Tied after three rounds, Wilder outpointed his opponent 6-0 in the fourth and final round. He next fights Mohammed Arjaoui of Morocco. And light flyweight Luis Yanez won his opening bout with a 12-9 win over Jose Kelvin de la Nieve of Spain. His next opponent is Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia.



Tennis



Roger Federer, who wept after losing to Thomas Berdych of the Czech Republic four years ago in Athens, avenged the loss with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory to reach the quarterfinals.

It was Federer’s biggest victory since he lost to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last month, and the two could meet in the Olympics final Sunday after Nadal beat Igor Andreev of Russia, 6-4, 6-2.

Federer will next face No. 8 James Blake, who advanced by beating No. 10 Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 6-2. Blake, the lone American to survive the first round of men’s singles, is 0-8 against Federer and has won only one of their 22 sets.

Venus Williams, playing her first tournament since winning Wimbledon for the fifth time, also reached the final eight by defeating No. 12 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-2.



Baseball



The U.S. baseball team lost to Korea, 8-7, in the opening game for both teams.

The Americans scored three times in the ninth to go up 7-6, but Korea scored twice in the bottom half.

China lost its Olympic baseball debut to Canada, and a Taiwanese baseball player was banned from participating in the team’s first Olympic game after failing a drug test.



Diving



The Chinese made it 4-for-4 when Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the 3-meter springboard.

The Americans are in danger of a second straight medal shutout after Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino finished fourth. The pair was in third headed into the final round, but Tarantino botched his entry.



Cycling



Kristin Armstrong became the second American female cyclist to win an Olympic gold, beating Britain’s Emma Pooley in the road time trial. Armstrong joined only Connie Carpenter-Phinney, who won the road race at Los Angeles 24 years ago, as U.S. women’s cycling gold medalists.

Levi Leipheimer won the bronze in the men’s time trial to move USA Cycling within one medal of tying its haul from the 2004 Athens Olympics.



Softball



Cat Osterman pitched a no-hitter as the U.S. team extended its Olympic winning streak to 16 straight with a 3-0 win over Australia. Osterman outdueled Australia’s Tanya Harding, who has handed the U.S. program two of its four losses in the games since 1996. She struck out 13, walked just two and dominated the Aussies in a rematch of the gold-medal game from 2004 in Athens.

The Americans, seeking their fourth straight gold, posted their 14th shutout during the winning streak.



Rowing



Rowing finalists were decided in five categories Wednesday.

In women’s single sculls, American Michelle Guerette advanced to Saturday’s final, while American twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss placed second in their semifinal to move on to the men’s pairs final. The U.S. team of David Banks, Paul Teti, Giuseppe Lanzone and Brett Newlin finished fifth in the other semi and missed qualifying for the men’s four final.



Sailing

Ben Ainslie of Britain gained a 6-point overall lead on American challenger Zach Railey in the Finn class.

American favorite Anna Tunnicliffe stayed at the top of the Laser Radial class after six races, with a sixth-place finish, while teammate Andrew Campbell took his first win in the men’s Laser class, and the U.S. boat beat Britain in the three-woman Yngling class.



Wrestling



Eighteen-year-old Jake Deitchler, the youngest U.S. Olympic wrestler in 32 years, dropped his opening-round match, then lost again in the repechage round of the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram competition to exit the Olympics with an 0-2 record.

The United States, last year’s world Greco champion, hasn’t gotten a medal yet in two days in Beijing with three wrestlers to go Thursday.

Manuchar Kvirkelia gave Georgia its first Olympic wrestling gold medal by winning the Greco-Roman 74-kilogram weight class, and Steeve Guenot won France’s first gold medal in 84 years by taking the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram weight.



Judo



Ronda Rousey won the bronze in women’s 70-kilogram judo, the first medal for the U.S. since the event made the official Olympic roster in 1992. U.S. women won silver and bronze when judo was a demonstration sport in 1988.

Irakli Tsirekidze of Georgia won the gold medal in men’s 90-kilogram judo, and Masae Ueno of Japan won the women’s 70-kilogram judo.



Water Polo



The U.S. played to a 9-9 tie with Italy after Elisa Casanova scored a power-play goal with 22 seconds left for the Italians. American Kami Craig got a final shot at victory with 2 seconds to play, but it came up short of the goal.



Women’s Basketball



Anete Jekabsone-Zogota scored 25 points, including a lay-up with 2.7 seconds left that lifted Latvia to a thrilling 79-78 victory over Brazil.

Trailing by one, Jekabsone-Zogota caught the inbounds pass and drove to the basket for the lay-in. Brazil had one last chance, but Adriana Pinto’s foul-line runner bounced off the rim. The win was Latvia’s first of the Olympics and left Brazil winless.

In other games, Russia held off Belarus 71-65, China routed New Zealand 80-63, Australia topped South Korea 90-62, and Spain beat the Czech Republic 74-55.



Table Tennis



The Chinese dominated the openings of Olympic team table tennis matches, as the women’s squad beat Croatia 3-0 in the best-of-five format made up of four singles and a doubles.

The Chinese men trailed several times before finally beating Greece in front of an excited crowd.

The U.S. women’s team, ranked No. 9 in the Olympic tournament, was unable to keep up with No. 2 Singapore but later beat the Netherlands.



Shooting



Chen Ying won the gold in the women’s 25-meter pistol to give China its sixth shooting medal. Chen was third entering the finals, trailing by five points, but outshot silver medalist Gundegmaa Otryad of Mongolia by 6.2 points for the win.



Archery



Lee Chang-hwan of South Korea set an Olympic record in his second-round archery win, scoring 117 of a possible 120 points to beat Yusuf Goktug Ergin of Turkey and advance to the third round.

American Vic Wunderle also moved on, beating Italy’s Ilario Di Buo’ in a shoot-off.



Badminton



Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng beat the American duo of Bob Malaythong and Howard Bach in the quarterfinals of the badminton tournament. The Chinese pair raced out to an 8-1 lead in the first game and never looked back on their way to a 21-9, 21-10 win over the unseeded Americans.



Women’s Volleyball



The U.S. women’s volleyball team scored a 3-1 victory over Venezuela to improve to 2-1 in preliminary pool play.

The team played with “Wiz” written on their arms and shoulders in marker in honor of 2004 teammate Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman McCutcheon. Her father was killed and her mother seriously injured in a stabbing attack last week in Beijing.



Weightlifting



Liu Chunhong broke three world records in the women’s 69-kilogram division, defending her Olympic title to win China’s sixth gold medal in the weightlifting competition.

Sa Jae-hyouk of South Korea won the men’s 77-kg division, finally stopping China, which had won all six of the previous weight categories in which it had participated.

Hungarian strongman Janos Baranyai’s first Olympics ended in agony when he dislocated his right elbow during the competition.



Beach volleyball



Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to the beach volleyball medal round with a straight-sets victory over Argentina.

The reigning world champions and heavily favored U.S. team never trailed in the match, winning 21-12, 21-13 in just 39 minutes. The Americans, who lost in their Olympic debut to No. 23 seed Latvia, improved to 2-1 in pool play.



Fencing



Benjamin Kleibrink of Germany won the gold medal in men’s foil fencing with a convincing 15-9 victory over Japan’s Yuki Ota.



Canoe



In men’s canoe double, brothers Peter and Pavol Hochschorner of Slovakia had the best combined time after two heats.

In the women’s kayaking singles event, defending Olympic champion Elena Kaliska of Slovakia produced the best combined time. American Heather Corrie advanced to the semifinal round.



Handball



Ramona Maier scored 11 goals to lead Romania to a 34-26 victory over France in a matchup of unbeaten squads in women’s handball.

Norway defeated Kazakhstan 35-19 in the highest point total of the tournament.



Field Hockey



Eli Matheson scored three goals to lead Australia over South Africa 10-0 in field hockey. In other games, Pakistan beat Canada 3-1, Germany and Belgium tied at 1, South Korea beat China 5-2, Spain beat New Zealand 1-0, and the Netherlands edged Britain 1-0.