Most every Olympic Games becomes known by a dominant storyline — the return of the event to its historic roots in the 2004 Athens Games, the first post-Cold War Games in 1992 in Barcelona, the first commercially televised Summer Games in 1960 in Rome.

What will become the storyline of the Beijing Games? The Smog Games? Genocide Games? The China-Fatigue Games? We’ll have to wait and see, but so far, the Phelps’ Games seems fitting. With three gold medals since the opening boosting his total take to nine all-time, he now joins the ranks of Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz as the most decorated in Olympic history.

By Matt Hennie