Cheering fellow American Jason Lezak anchor the U.S. individual relay team to a world record victory in the 400-meter medley, Michael Phelps captured his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. He surpassed Mark Spitz’s mark of seven golds at the 1972 Munich Games.

This latest gold medal victory almost sunk before their eyes, as the Americans were in third place behind Japan and Australia going into Phelps’ leg of the race. He dove into the water, and powered the U.S. back in front with his butterfly stroke. Lezak held off Australia’s Eamon Sullivan to secure a world record time of 3:29.34 (Phelps’ seventh world record in Beijing).

Once the official results were posted on the board, it was celebration time for Phelps. And he could not contain himself, as Phelps slapped low-fives with his teammates and threw his arms in the air. He praised the support received from the U.S. swimming team because without them, none of his accomplishments would have been possible.

The final numbers for Phelps are five individual and three relay gold medals in Beijing. Thus far in his career, he has captured a total of 16 medals (14 gold). Phelps has become the all-time winningest Olympian, and the scary thing is, he has at least one more Olympics in him.

That’s what it took.

Trailing French sprint star, Alain Bernard, going into the final turn, American Jason Lezak pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic history to capture the gold medal in the 4×100 freestyle swimming relay race at Beijing.

This was the biggest obstacle in Michael Phelps’ quest for eight gold medals in one Olympiad. He set the pace for his relay team, as they shattered the world record by a full four seconds with a time of 3:08.24. The victory was also bittersweet because Bernard had guaranteed his team would “smash” the U.S. squad in head-to–head competition. After the defeat, he left the pool in stunned silence.

Check out the video here.