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Here at the Michaelympics, it's impossible to go 30 minutes without seeing the big lug with the titanium abs and multiple gold medals. Everywhere you turn, he is there.

Michael Phelps on the pool deck, in the pool, on the podium, at the microphone, in the warm-up pool, over to the warm-down pool, back up on the blocks.

And if you're not seeing him live, you're seeing endless replays of him hitting the water in high definition, super slow-motion, or cheering wildly when the American 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay team narrowly edged France for the gold.

If you've seen it once, you're going to see it eight times.

On Tuesday, the 23-year-old American won his third gold medal of these Games, taking the 200-metre freestyle event with ease. (He could have done the dead man's float for the last few metres and still won by an arm's length.)

The win gave Phelps nine gold medals for his Olympic career, tying him with such U.S. icons as Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis. It also set him up for Wednesday morning's double-barrel shot at the 200m butterfly gold and the men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay gold. Two more victories and Phelps' status as the greatest, most successful Olympian would be sealed.

"To be tied for the most Olympic golds of all time, with those names, the Olympics have been around for so many years, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment," Phelps acknowledged. "(Coach) Bob (Bowman) said to me after the 200, 'You're tied.' It was like, 'That's pretty cool.' "

Phelps has been exceedingly cool for a guy under egg-crushing pressure. That swimmers are racing for medals in the morning instead of in the evening, as they normally do, is in large part because of Phelps's bid to win eight medals at a single Olympics.

After NBC paid $2.2-billion (U.S.) to secure the broadcast rights to the Olympics up to 2012, it hit a gusher in Phelps by getting the perfect athlete at the peak of his abilities. NBC asked the International Olympic Committee to move the swim finals to the morning, Beijing time, so that North American audiences could see the events, and specifically Phelps, in prime time.

The idea was everyone would benefit: the sport, Phelps, the other athletes and, of course, the IOC.

When NBC showed the high drama of the men's 4x100-metre freestyle relay, its overnight ratings reached 21.3, a 16 per cent improvement from the Athens Olympics of four years ago. That's what happens when you have a mega-star star on the marquee.

Not that there weren't complaints about switching the time of the finals. Australian coach Alan Thompson was the most vocal critic saying swimming all too readily sold its soul.

"Whether the heats or the final are in the morning and the afternoon does not matter to us in terms of performance," Thompson told The Australian newspaper. "I think in this day and loyalty is very lacking in sport and I think that often money talks too loudly.

"I just think when it comes to issues like that there (are) certain traditions that need to be followed."

Phelps's agent, Peter Carlisle, negotiated a $1-million bonus from Speedo if Phelps is able to tie Spitz's record of winning seven goals at one Olympics. It's a good bet to happen since Phelps, who won six gold and two bronze medals in Athens, has honed his game to a razor's edge.

"Four years ago I just wanted to race," Phelps said. "I hate to lose. Getting third in the 200 four years ago, when I lose in circumstances like that, it motivates me even more. In the past four years I've been able to make some pretty significant drops in the 200, especially underwater. I was watching my kick outs and that's all I can ask for."

Phelps has had to restrict his media conferences here because of his arduous schedule. At one news session, he was asked what he was doing between his many swims.

"I've been eating a lot of pasta and pizza, a lot of carbs," he answered. "I've been sleeping as much as I can ... I get two massages a day, ice baths. I've been able to (physically) recover very well."

While he's limited his contact with media types and even other athletes, Phelps has been more accessible than Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, who has not given any interviews and not been seen in weeks. Xiang is carrying his nation's hopes in the greatest sporting spectacle in China's history. Maybe he's following Phelps' s lead and sleeping as much as he can - sleeping and not worrying about the competition.

"I have no idea," Phelps said when asked to name his chief rivals in his remaining events. "It's hard to tell who the main competition is. It's taking faster times to get into semi-finals and finals than it did four years ago."

That hasn't been too problematic for Phelps. Having already changed these Olympics before they opened, he's proven he's up to the task.