It was a historic day for the 400m metres individual medley. The women’s world record was broken by Australian Stephanie Rice (click here for more info), and the men’s world record was broken by American Michael Phelps.

With US President George W Bush as a spectator, Phelps broke the 400 IM record by more than 1.4 seconds, having a winning time of 4:03.84.

“That was a pretty emotional race today,” Phelps said.

“I think I am as prepared as I can be at the moment, and this is the best time to be in that position.

“I can't express how excited I am to be able to start off with that event and how it turned out.”

Phelps is currently in pursuit of the most amount of swimming gold medals in one Olympics. The record is currently held by Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals at Munich in 1972. Phelps’ program allows for eight gold medal opportunities.

Want more Beijing Olympics news? Click on the ‘beijing olympics’ tag below.

Tags: beijing olympics, swimming