Race by Race Breakdown for Michael Phelps on his Quest for 8 • Pat Forde's breakdown: Phelps has his sights set on bettering Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medials, set at the 1972 Munich Games. Here is a review of Phelps' races at Beijing. • Race No. 1 -- 400-meter IM: Phelps kept pace with teammate Ryan Lochte and László Cseh in his weakest discipline, the breaststroke, before putting the hammer down in the freestyle to win his first gold of the Games. • Race No. 2 -- 4x100 free relay: Phelps almost saw his run end, but Jason Lezak came back in the final leg to help the U.S. men edge France to win gold in one of the most memorable relay races in Olympic history. • Race No. 3 -- 200 freestyle: Phelps easily won his third gold of the Games and ninth of his career in one of his strongest events. He also broke his own world record (1:42.96). • Race No. 4 -- 200 butterfly: It wasn't even close, folks. Phelps controlled the race from the beginning to win, breaking his own world record. • Race No. 5 -- 4x200 free relay: Phelps chose to swim the first leg of the relay and immediately set the tone. By the time Peter Vanderkaay swam the anchor leg, the Americans held a fivebody-length lead. • Race No. 6 -- 200 individual medley: Phelps dominated right from the start of the 200 IM and powered away to win in 1:54.23, another world record. Less than an hour later, Phelps won his 100 butterfly qualifier. • Race No. 7 -- 100 butterfly: Saturday morning Beijing time, Friday night in the U.S. Phelps wins this race by 1/100th of a Second to claim his 7th Olympic Gold Medal. • Race No. 8 -- 4x100 medley relay: Sunday morning Beijing time, Saturday night in the U.S.