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Michael Phelps: The greatest ever Olympian?

Michael Phelps celebrates helping the United States win the 4x200m freestyle relay © PA Photos

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Every day of the Olympics, we at ESPN Towers will award gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three moments. Here are our choices for day four...

Schedule
Results
Medal Table

Gold

Who else could it be? It will take time - maybe years - to sink in, but London witnessed a monumental piece of sporting history on Tuesday.

Michael Phelps, American swimmer and icon, became the most successful Olympian in the history of the Games. In 116 years of Olympic competition, nobody had ever won 19 medals in their career.

Until now.

A silver medal in the men's 200m butterfly saw Phelps move level with Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympian of all time. But No. 19 was only minutes away.

When the moment arrived, it was like a victory parade. Phelps' 4x200m freestyle relay colleagues had given him a healthy lead, all he had to do was lap up the admiration. And there was plenty. Nobody was sitting down inside the Aquatics Centre as Phelps brought it home, setting a record medal haul that may not be broken for another 116 years.

Silver

Wimbledon has a habit of throwing up marathon matches - remember Nicolas Mahut v John Isner? Well, we had another on Tuesday as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Milos Raonic made records tumble.

There was little sign of the epic that unravelled as the players shared the first two sets, 6-3 3-6. However, as they entered the third, diaries quickly became cleared of business.

Clocking three hours and 58 minutes, it became the longest tennis match in Olympic history. It also broke records for the most games played in a singles match (best of three sets only) at an Olympics, and the most games in a set.

The final result read 6-3 3-6 25-23, and it was in Tsonga's favour. The Frenchman had been scheduled to play doubles later that day, but unsurprisingly he did not re-emerge.

Bronze

Any other day, Team GB's women footballers would surely have topped our ESPN Podium. But today was a special one.

Hope Powell's side defeated Brazil 1-0 at Wembley, thanks to a second-minute goal from Steph Houghton. Reason enough to take bronze on our rostrum.

However, this was a record-breaking night for the Brits. The UK record attendance for a women's football match was 53,000, set back in 1920. On Tuesday that was obliterated by the 70,584 who turned up at Wembley, to witness GB down the Brazilians.

Next up is a quarter-final at Coventry, which might feel like quite the come-down.

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