Phelps eyes overall Olympic medal record
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Two medals in two races Tuesday would make Michael Phelps the all-time Olympic medal leader.
Swimming in what he swears will be his last Olympics, Phelps has 17 medals, including a record 14 gold. He needs two more to pass Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won 18 in the 1950s and 60s.
The medals could come Tuesday night in the 200-meter butterfly and the men's 800-meter freestyle relay.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Phelps and Ryan Lochte should swim the relay, which the U.S. has won in the last two Olympics. Americans, in fact, have won it 15 of the 23 times it has been held in the Summer Games, including 10 of the last 13.
Charlie Houchin, Matthew McLean, Davis Tarwater and Conor Dwyer qualified the U.S. with the fastest time in heats Tuesday morning -- 2.43 seconds ahead of France.
Also in the morning, Nathan Adrian had the fastest time in heats for the men's 100 free and U.S. teammate Kathleen Hersey was tops in the women's 200 fly.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So far, Phelps is 1-for-2 in medals here after finishing fourth in the 400 individual medley Saturday night, the race Lochte won, and getting his first ever silver medal as part of the 400 free relay team that lost to France.
The French will also be a threat in Tuesday night's relay, while Phelps was the fourth-fastest qualifier in the 200 fly behind Japan's Takeshi Matsuda, Chad le Clos of South Africa and Chen Yin of China.
If Phelps wins the 200 fly, he would become the first male swimmer ever to earn gold in the same event in three straight Olympics. He missed doing that already in the 400 IM.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The other swimming finals Tuesday are in the women's 200 free and women's 200 individual medley. Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old rising star who won her first Olympic gold medal Monday night, is swimming in the 200 free.
Franklin barely qualified for the race, squeaking in with the eighth and final spot by .13 seconds.