Michael Phelps moved to within a single victory of equalling Mark Spitz's hallowed Olympic gold medal-winning record as he destroyed the opposition once again to win the 200metres individual medley at Beijing's Water Cube.

American Michael Phelps equalled the record for the most Olympic gold medals in history by claiming his third at the 2008 Games on Tuesday.

These are the results from today's swimming events at the Athens Olympics:

IAN THORPE underlined his status as the world’s greatest swimmer when he defended his men’s 200m freestyle title at the world swimming championships in Barcelona yesterday.