So it has begun. Michael Phelps is performing above and beyond every other athlete, so rumors are starting that he must be doping. He hasn't failed any test and nobody can even suggest they have first hand knowledge of him doping, but still the slime is oozing to the news.

Michael Phelps swam over the field in the 200m IM on Friday, leading in all four legs and extending it on the freestyle lap to finish with a world-record time of 1:54.23 for his sixth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.

If Michael Phelps were swimming 50 years ago, he no doubt would have been accused of being an alien.

It's now six golds in six events and Michael Phelps has six world records.

Following his win in the 200m IM, Phelps emphatically denied using any performance-enhancing drugs.

"Anybody can say whatever they want, but I know I'm clean," Phelps said. "People can question it all they want, but the facts are the facts. I have the results to prove it."

As a participant in "Project Believe," a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency volunteer initiative where athletes provide additional testing that is more frequent and more sophisticated than the usual regime of tests, he continually comes up clean.

When he dives in tonight for the 100m butterfly on Day 8 in Beijing, he may be tieing a record. At 10 o'clock tonight, Phelps can match Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

And Mark Spitz, the American swimmer whose 1972 mark of seven gold medals in one Olympics Michael Phelps could equal tonught and could break Sunday, said, "When I look at Michael and I think of the lore of what he has done over the last four years -- it's more remarkable than myself."

As Phelps' quest to make history continues, those who made history before him paused Friday in appreciation -- not only to reflect on the magnitude of what the 23-year-old swimmer from Baltimore has already accomplished here at the Water Cube but to unhesitatingly and unreservedly offer praise.

His biggest rival in the next event may be his teammate, Ian Crocker. Ian has held the world record in the event for more than three years and is the last major opponent Phelps will face in his race for 8.

After that event, he just has one more race. A relay in which team USA is favored.