LONDON — Swimmer Michael Phelps won his 17th Olympic medal to take him closer to the all-time mark, but his US freestyle relay team were upstaged by France as records fell in the pool on Sunday’s second day of competition at the London Games.
South Africa’s Cameron Van der Burgh and American Dana Vollmer set world records in the men’s 100m breaststroke and women’s 100m butterfly, Van der Burgh denying Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima in his bid to be the first male swimmer to win gold in the same event at three successive Olympics.
Cyclist Lizzie Armitstead won Britain’s first medal of the London Games, a silver behind the Dutch favourite Marianne Vos in a nailbiting, rain-drenched women’s road race.
The latest US basketball Dream Team played to the gallery as they cruised through their opening match against France, but there was an upset for another American gold medal favourite, gymnastics world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, who failed to qualify for the individual Olympic final.
Overall, China took a commanding early lead in the rankings with 12 medals, six of them gold, ahead of the United States on 11 medals, including three golds.
Phelps won his first-ever silver after swimming a storming second leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay to lift his overall medal tally to 17, just one shy of the all-time record held by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.
But a flying anchor leg from France’s Yannick Agnel snatched the gold from the fingertips of Phelps’s teammate and great individual rival Ryan Lochte.
