American swimmer Michael Phelps needed a little help from his friends to pip France in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay and keep alive his dream of an unprecedented eight golds at one Games yesterday.
Again watched by US President George Bush in the stands, Phelps left the US team second after the first leg.
France looked sure to win when former record holder Alain Bernard led by half a body length with a lap to go. So, it took an astonishing comeback from American team-mate Jason Lezak to beat the French by a finger-tip at the death.
Somehow, Lezak got his hands on the wall first, swimming an incredible 46.06 seconds for his leg, and set a world record of 3:08.24, almost four seconds faster than the previous mark of 3:12.23 set by the American second-string team in the heats.
A relieved and usually cool Phelps, 23, pumped his arms in the air and screamed for joy amid wild celebrations on the US team whom France had boasted about "smashing" in the build-up.
"Jason finished that race better than we could even ask for," Phelps said. "I was so fired up."
Making yet more swimming history in the same race, Eamon Sullivan claimed the individual world record from Bernard when he led the Australian team off on the first lap.
Sullivan clocked 47.28 seconds to beat the previous world record of 47.50 set by Bernard in March.
The relay win left Phelps with two golds, after he destroyed his own world record on Sunday to win the 400m individual medley.
He is still on course to beat Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven golds in a single Games. And after six in Athens, Phelps needs only two more to have the most golds of any Olympian.
Also bringing the crowd to their feet in the shimmering pool venue, the most decorated Asian swimmer of all time, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, justified his pre-race hype by shaving 0.22 seconds off the world record to win the 100 metre breaststroke.
Kitajima, who won both 100 and 200 golds in Athens in 2004, touched in 58.91 seconds to slice 0.22 off the world mark of 59.13 set by world champion Brendan Hansen, of the United States, two years ago.
Women swimmers were not to be outdone.
Australia's Libby Trickett was told by coaches to do what every woman hates - build up her backside - before Beijing due to a weakness in gluteal muscles. That paid off when she won gold in the women's 100 metres butterfly, her first individual Olympic title.
Trickett powered her way to the gold medal in 56.73 seconds, just 0.12 outside the world record of 56.61 set by Inge de Bruijn at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
American Christine Magnuson finished second in 57.10 while Australia's Jessicah Schipper was third in 57.25.
Rebecca Adlington won Britain's first Olympic women's swimming title in nearly half a century with a last-gasp victory in the 400 metres freestyle final.
Adlington, fourth at the final turn, hurtled down the last length to overhaul American Katie Hoff and clinch the gold by a tiny 0.07 seconds in four minutes 03.22 seconds.
Hoff clung on to take the silver in 4:03.29 while Joanne Jackson provided Britain with a second medal when she finished third in 4:03.52.
It was Britain's first Olympic swimming gold by a woman since Anita Lonsbrough, who watched yesterday's race as a journalist, won the 200 breaststroke at the Rome Games in 1960.
World record holder Federica Pellegrini of Italy, fastest in Sunday's heats just ahead of Adlington in an Olympic record 4:02.19, could never exert her expected dominance and faded to finish fifth.
Athens champion Laure Manaudou, of France, who had earlier swum in the 100 metres backstroke semi-finals, took the race out inside world record pace but had slipped from first to seventh on the fourth length of the 50-metre Water Cube pool and trailed home last, more than eight seconds behind Adlington.
Pellegrini made up for her upset in the 400m final by breaking the 200 metres freestyle world record in the heats later in the day.
Pellegrini clocked 1:55.45 to beat the previous world record of 1:55.52 set by Manaudou in 2007.
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry had vowed to show her nation in a positive light in China despite its economic and political crisis. She did just that by shaving 0.20 seconds off the world record for 100 metres backstroke during her semi-final.
Coventry set a world record of 58.77 seconds to better the previous best time of 58.97 set by Natalie Coughlin at last month's US Olympic trials.