Look up challenge in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.

Challenge may also refer to:

Film and television[link]

• Challenge (TV channel), a British television channel
• Challenge (1984 film), Telugu film
• Challenge (2009 film), Bengali film
• Food Network Challenge
• Challenges (film), a 2011 Sri Lankan film

Music[link]

• Challenge (album), an album by Flower Travellin' Band
• Challenge Records (disambiguation), multiple record labels

Publications[link]

• Challenge (1933), tabloid newspaper of the Young People's Socialist League, youth organization of the Socialist Party of America
• Challenge (Communist journal), British Young Communist League magazine, and also the name of the newspaper of the communist Progressive Labor Party (USA).
• Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs, a magazine of economic affairs
• Challenge (game magazine), a role-playing game magazine

Transportation[link]

• Challenge (cycle and car), an early British manufacturer of cycles and cars
• MS Clipper Ranger or MS Challenge, a ferry
• Challenge 67, a yacht

Tourist Plane contests[link]

• Challenge International de Tourisme 1929
• International Touring Competition 1930
• Challenge International de Tourisme 1932
• Challenge International de Tourisme 1934

Other uses[link]

• Challenge (gasoline), a New Zealand gasoline brand
• Challenge (literature), an attempt to remove or restrict access to literary materials
• Challenge (NFL), when a head coach requests the referees review a play
• Challenge (Scrabble), an element of the word game
• Challenge, California, a community within the CDP
• SGI Challenge, a family of server computers from Silicon Graphics
• Challenge Stadium, a sports complex in Perth, Australia
• Voter challenging or caging, a method of challenging the registration status of voters

See also[link]

• Challenge-Brownsville, California, a census-designated place (CDP) in Yuba County, California, United States
• Challenge-response authentication in computer security, a component of client authentication in some systems
• The Challenge (disambiguation)
• Challenger (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "Challenge"
• Geocaching Challenge

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.^[1]

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.^[2]

Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub-Saharan African descent (see African diaspora). Among the members of this group, dark skin is most often accompanied by the expression of natural afro-hair texture. Other definitions of the term "black people" extend to other populations characterized by dark skin, sometimes including people indigenous to Oceania.^[3][4]

Physiological traits[link]

Dark skin[link]

Map of indigenous skin color distribution in the world based on Von Luschan's chromatic scale.

The evolution of dark skin is linked intrinsically to the loss of body hair in humans. By 1.2 million years ago, all people having descendants today had the same receptor protein of today's Africans; their skin was dark, and the intense sun lowered the chance of survival of those with lighter skin that resulted from mutational variation in the receptor protein.^[5] This is significantly earlier than the speciation of Homo sapiens from Homo erectus some 250,000 years ago.

Skin cancer as a result of ultraviolet light radiation causing mutations in the skin is less common among people with dark skin than it is among those with light skin.^[6][7] Dark skin prevents an essential B vitamin, folate, from being destroyed. In the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be healthier and more likely to reproduce than a person with light skin. As evidence of this expectation of adverse effects of light skin in the tropics, White South Africans ^[8] and white Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world.^[9]

Conversely, as dark skin prevents sunlight from penetrating the skin, it hinders the production of vitamin D₃. When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D₃ levels became a problem, and humans with lighter skin were more successful in reproducing. White people of Europe, who have low levels of melanin, naturally have an almost colorless skin pigmentation, especially when untanned. This low level of pigmentation allows the blood vessels to become visible, which gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The loss of melanin in white people is thought to have been caused by a mutation in one letter out of 3.1 billion letters of DNA.^[10]

The genetic mutations leading to light skin, though different among East Asians and Europeans,^[11] suggest the two groups experienced a similar selective pressure due to settlement in northern latitudes.^[12]

Black skin pigmentation has been linked to a number of other properties, including tactile characteristics, and slower and less pronounced development of wrinkles.^[13]

Hair[link]

The texture of hair in people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry is noticeably different from that of European and Asian populations. Herodotus described the peoples of Libya (the "western Ethiopians") as woolly-haired.

Such "afro-hair" texture is denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as "coily", "thick", "nappy", "bushy", or "woolly". For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section (among other factors^[14]), this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance.^[15][16] Its unique shape renders it prone to breakage when combed or brushed.^[16]

The specific characteristics of the natural afro-hair form are unique among all mammals.^{[clarification needed][dubious – discuss][17]} The texture likely predates the evolution of dark skin. It evolved when, as pre-human australopithecines lost most of their fur to enable perspiration, the need to protect the newly exposed pale skin underneath this body hair was crucial (see^[18] in light of Rogers and others., 2004 and Harding and others., 2000). The trait ceased to be essential to survival at the equator upon the evolution of hairless dark skin. Yet it has continued to be expressed vestigially among most Melanesians, Andaman Islanders, and sub-Saharan Africans.

Sub-Saharan Africa[link]

A black woman and her albino son from Tanzania

Sub-Saharan Africa is a common, if imprecise term that encompasses African countries located south of the Sahara Desert. It is commonly used to differentiate the region culturally, ecologically, politically and, more controversially, racially, from North Africa, which has historically been considered part of the Mediterranean sphere and whose residents are primarily of Arab ethnicity.

Because the indigenous people of this region are primarily dark-skinned, it is alternatively called "Black Africa".^[19] However the terminology Black Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa is considered by some as a pejorative term and a vestige of colonialism, which divided Africa into European terms of homogeneity.^[20] Some criticize the use of the term, because, as it has become in many quarters synonymous with Black Africa, people may not realize that there are also indigenous black populations in North Africa. In addition, the Sahara cuts across countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad, leaving some parts of them in North Africa and some in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some black Africans prefer to be culturally distinguished from those who live in the north of the continent.^[21]

Cultural ideas of a black race[link]

South Africa[link]

A Khoisan man, an ethnic group in South Africa.

In South Africa during the apartheid era, the population was classified into four main racial groups: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian), and Coloured. The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Coloured definition occupied an intermediary position between the Black and White definitions in South Africa.

The apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria in the Population Registration Act to determine who belonged in which group. Minor officials administered tests to enforce the classifications. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance whether a person was to be considered Colored or Black, the "pencil test" was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.^[22]

During the apartheid era, those classed as "Coloured" were oppressed and discriminated against. But, they had limited rights and overall had slightly better socioeconomic conditions than those classed as "Black".

In the post-apartheid era, the ANC government's laws in support of their affirmative action policies define "Black" people to include "Africans", "Coloureds" and "Asians". Their affirmative action policies have also favored "Africans" over "Coloureds". Some South Africans categorized as "African Black" openly state that "Coloureds" did not suffer as much as they did during apartheid. The popular saying by "Coloured" South Africans to illustrate their dilemma is:

We were not white enough under apartheid, and we are not black enough under the ANC (African National Congress)

In 2008, the High Court in South Africa ruled that Chinese South Africans who were residents during the apartheid era (and their descendents) are to be reclassified as "Black people" solely for the purposes of accessing affirmative action benefits, because they were also "disadvantaged" by racial discrimination. Chinese people who arrived in the country after the end of apartheid do not qualify.^[23]

Other than by appearance, "Coloureds" can usually be distinguished from "Blacks" by language. Most speak Afrikaans or English as a first language, as opposed to Bantu languages such as Zulu or Xhosa. They also tend to have more European-sounding names than Bantu names.^[24]

In the Middle East[link]

Near East and North Africa[link]

Black African and Near Eastern peoples have interacted since prehistoric times.^[25][26] Some historians estimate that as many as 14 million black slaves were transported across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert in the Arab slave trade from 650 to 1900 CE.^[27][28] The Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail "the Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission.^[29][30]

13th century slave market in Yemen. Yemen officially abolished slavery in 1962.^[31]

In more recent times, about 1000 CE, interactions between black people and Arabs resulted in the incorporation of extensive Arabic vocabulary into Swahili, which became a useful lingua franca for merchants. Some of this linguistic exchange occurred as part of the slave trade; the history of Islam and slavery shows that the major juristic schools traditionally accepted the institution of slavery.^[32] As a result, Arab influence spread along the east coast of Africa and to some extent into the interior (see Swahili people). Timbuktu was a trading outpost that linked West Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout the Arab World. As a result of these interactions, some female-mediated gene flow into the Middle East from Sub-Saharan Africa can be observed in certain populations.^[33]

According to Dr. Carlos Moore, resident scholar at Brazil's University of the state of Bahia, Afro-multiracials in the Arab world self-identify in ways that resemble Latin America. He claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry.^[34]

Soldiers of the Free Arabian Legion in Greece, September 1943.

Moore also claims that a film about Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had to be canceled when Sadat discovered that an African-American had been cast to play him. In fact, the 1983 television movie Sadat, starring Louis Gossett, Jr., was not canceled. The Egyptian government refused to let the drama air in Egypt, partially on the grounds of the casting of Gossett.^[35]

Sadat's mother was a dark-skinned Sudanese woman and his father was a lighter-skinned Egyptian. In response to an advertisement for an acting position he remarked, "I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish".^[36]

Fathia Nkrumah was another Egyptian with ties to Black Africa. She was the late wife of Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, whose marriage was seen as helping plant the seeds of cooperation between Egypt and other African countries as they struggled for independence from European colonization. This helped advance the formation of the African Union.^[37]

Bashi-bazouk of the Ottoman Empire by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1869

Because of the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men enslaved more black women than men, and used more black female slaves than males. The men interpreted the Qur'an to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage,^[38][39] leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab master's child, she became umm walad or “mother of a child”, a status that granted her privileged rights. The child was allowed to prosper from the wealth of the father and was given rights of inheritance.^[40] Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers' status at birth and were born free. Some succeeded their fathers as rulers, as was the case with Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. His mother was a Fulani concubine of his father.

Such tolerance, however, was not extended to wholly black persons, even when technically "free." Arabs commonly believed that blacks were slaves.^[41] The term "abd", (Arabic: عبد‎,) "slave," remains a common term for black people in the Middle East, and, depending on the context, usually though not always derogatory.^[42]

Turkey[link]

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of sub-Saharan Africans were brought by slave traders during the Ottoman Empire to plantations between Antalya and Istanbul in modern-day Turkey.^[43] Some of their descendants remain, mixed with the rest of the population in these areas, and many migrated to larger cities. Some came from the island of Crete following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.^[44]

Israel[link]

An African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem child in Dimona.

About 150,000 black people live in Israel, amounting to just over 2% of the nation's population. The vast majority of these, some 120,000, are Beta Israel,^[45] most of whom came during the 1980s and 1990s from Ethiopia.^[46] In addition, Israel is home to over 5,000 members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem movement, who reside mainly in a distinct neighborhood in the Negev town of Dimona. Unknown numbers of black converts to Judaism reside in Israel, most of them converts from the UK, Canada, and the United States. Thousands of mixed-race individuals with non-black Jewish relatives also live in Israel.

In the Americas[link]

Approximately 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade from 1492 to 1888. Today their descendants number approximately 150 million,^[47] most of whom live in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. Most notably Brazil has the largest population in the world, aside from Nigeria, of individuals of at least partial African descent. Many have a multiracial background of African, Amerindian, European and Asian ancestry. The various regions developed complex social conventions with which their multi-ethnic populations were classified.

United States[link]

Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad.

In the first 200 years that black people were in the United States, they commonly referred to themselves as Africans. In Africa, people primarily identified themselves by ethnic group (closely allied to language) and not by skin color. Individuals would be Ashanti, Igbo, Bakongo or Wolof. But when Africans were brought to the Americas, they were forced to give up their ethnic affiliations when they were combined with other groups from Africa. In areas of the Upper South, different ethnic groups were brought together. This is significant as Africans came from a vast geographic region, the West African coastline stretching from Senegal to Angola and in some cases from the south east coast such as Mozambique. A new identity and culture was born that incorporated elements of the various ethnic groups and of European cultural heritage, resulting in fusions such as the Black church and Black English. This new identity was based on African ancestry and slave status rather than any one ethnic group.^[48]

In March 1807, Britain, which largely controlled the Atlantic, declared the trans-atlantic slave trade illegal, as did the United States. (The latter prohibition took effect January 1, 1808, the earliest date on which Congress had the power to do so under Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution.)

By that time, the majority of black people were U.S.-born, so use of the term "African" became problematic. Though initially a source of pride, many blacks feared the use of African as an identity would be a hindrance to their fight for full citizenship in the US. They also felt that it would give ammunition to those who were advocating repatriating black people back to Africa. In 1835 black leaders called upon black Americans to remove the title of "African" from their institutions and replace it with "Negro" or "Colored American". A few institutions chose to keep their historic names, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. "Negro" and "colored" remained the popular terms until the late 1960s.^[49]

The term black was used throughout but not frequently as it carried a certain stigma. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech,^[50] Martin Luther King, Jr. uses the terms negro fifteen times and black four times. Each time he uses black it is in parallel construction with white, for example, "black men and white men".^[51]

With the successes of the civil rights movement, a new term was needed to break from the past and help shed the reminders of legalized discrimination. In place of Negro, activists promoted the use of black as standing for racial pride, militancy and power. Some of the turning points included the use of the term "Black Power" by Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and the release of James Brown's song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud".

African-American Michael Jordan, considered by many the greatest basketball player in history.

In 1988 Jesse Jackson urged Americans to use the term African American because the term has a historical cultural base. Since then African-American and black have essentially a coequal status. Controversy continues over which term is more appropriate. Some such as Maulana Karenga and Owen Alik Shahadah argue African-American is more appropriate because it accurately articulates geography and historical origin.^[48] Others have argued that "black" is a better term because "African" suggests foreignness, despite the long presence of black people in the US.^[52] Still others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones.^{[citation needed]} Surveys show that the majority of black Americans have no preference for "African American" or "Black,"^[53] although they have a slight preference for "black" in personal settings and "African-American" in more formal settings.^[54] Increases in the number of immigrants to the United States from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America have brought up questions about who uses the term African-American. The more recent African immigrants may sometimes view themselves, and be viewed, as culturally distinct from native-born people who are descendants of African slaves.^[55]

The U.S. census race definitions says a black is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or who provide written entries such as African-American, Afro-American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. However, the Census Bureau notes that these classifications are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as scientific or anthropological.^[56]

A black Gl and a Chinese soldier place the flag of their ally on the front of their jeep, truck convoy on the Stilwell Road, Burma, 1945

A considerable portion of the U.S. population identified as black also has some Native American or European ancestry. For instance, genetic studies of African-American people show an ancestry that is on average 17–18% European.^[57]

One-drop rule[link]

Since the late nineteenth century, the South used a colloquial term, the one-drop rule, to classify as black a person of any known African ancestry. This practice of hypodescent was not put into law until the early twentieth century.^[58] Legally the definition varied from state to state, and was more flexible in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before the American Civil War. For instance, Thomas Jefferson held persons who were legally white (less than 25% Black) according to Virginia law at the time, but, because they were born to slave mothers, they were born into slavery, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, which Virginia adopted into law in 1662.

Outside of the US, some other countries have adopted the one-drop rule, but the definition of who is black and the extent to which the one-drop "rule" applies varies greatly from country to country.

The one-drop rule may have originated as a means of increasing the number of black slaves^[59] and been maintained as an attempt to keep the white race pure.^[60] One of the results of the one-drop rule was uniting the African-American community.^[58] Some of the most prominent civil-rights activists were multiracial, and advocated equality for all.^{[citation needed]}

Blackness[link]

Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, was throughout his campaign criticized as being either "too black" or "not black enough".^[61][62][63]

The concept of blackness in the United States has been described^{[by whom?]} as the degree to which one associates themselves with mainstream African-American culture and values. To a certain extent, this concept is not so much about race but more about culture and behavior. Blackness can be contrasted with "acting white," where black Americans are said to behave with assumed characteristics of stereotypical white Americans, with regard to fashion, dialect, taste in music,^[64] and possibly, from the perspective of a significant number of black youth, academic achievement.^[65]

The notion of blackness can also be extended to non-black people. Toni Morrison once described Bill Clinton as the first black president,^[66] because of his warm relations with African Americans, his poor upbringing and also because he is a jazz musician. Christopher Hitchens was offended by the notion of Clinton as the first black president noting "we can still define blackness by the following symptoms: alcoholic mothers, under-the-bridge habits...the tendency to sexual predation and shameless perjury about the same". Some black activists were also offended, claiming Clinton used his knowledge of black culture to exploit black people like no other president before^[67] for political gain, while not serving black interests. They note his lack of action during the Rwanda genocide^[68] and his welfare reform which some claim led to the worst child poverty since the 1960s^[69] along with the fact that the number of black people in jail increased during his administration.^[70]

The question of blackness also arose in Democrat Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Commentators have questioned whether Obama, who was elected the first black President of the United States, is black enough, as his mother was white American, and his father was a black Kenyan immigrant.^[61][63] Obama refers to himself interchangeably as black and African-American.^[71] "Is Barack Obama the first black President of the United States?"^[72]

Brazil[link]

The topic of race in Brazil is a complex and diverse one.^{[citation needed]} A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Between a pure black and a very light mulatto over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity.^[73]

Jongo, a Brazilian dance of African origin, c. 1822

There is some disagreement among scholars over the effects of social status on racial classifications in Brazil. It is generally believed that upward mobility and education results in reclassification of individuals into lighter skinned categories. The popular claim is that in Brazil poor whites are considered black and wealthy blacks are considered white. Some scholars disagree arguing that whitening of one's social status may be open to people of mixed race, but a typically black person will consistently be identified as black regardless of wealth or social status.^[74][75] Multiracial persons can even reappreciate their African heritage and start to declare themselves as black persons with increasings of social status and education.

Statistics[link]

From the year 1500 to 1850 an estimated 3.5 million Africans were forcibly shipped to Brazil.^[74] It is estimated that more than half of the Brazilian population is at least in part descendants of these Africans. Brazil has the largest population of Afro-descendants outside of Africa. In contrast to the US there were no segregation or anti-miscegenation laws in Brazil and as a result intermarriage has affected a large majority of the Brazilian population. Even much of the white/Asian population has either African or Amerindian blood. According to the last census of the twentieth century 54% identified themselves as white, 6.2% identified themselves as black and 39.5% identified themselves as Pardo (brown) — a broad multiracial category.^[77]

A philosophy of whitening emerged in Brazil in the nineteenth century. Until recently the government did not keep data on race. However, statisticians estimate that in 1835 half the population was black, one fifth was Pardo (brown) and one fourth white. By 2000 the black population had fallen to only 6.2% and the Pardo had increased to 40% and white to 55%. Essentially most of the black population was absorbed into the multiracial category by intermixing.^[73] A recent study found that at least 29% of the middle class white Brazilian population had some recent African ancestry.^[78]

Race relations in Brazil[link]

Afro-Brazilian women during a Candomblé ceremony.

Because of the ideology of miscegenation, Brazil has avoided the polarization of society into black and white. The bitter and sometimes violent racial tensions that divide the US are notably absent in Brazil. According to the census, 6.7% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 6.2% in 2000, and 43.1% said they were mixed race, up from 38.5%. According to Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, attributed the change to growing pride among his country's black and indigenous communities.^[79]

However, the philosophy of the racial democracy in Brazil has drawn criticism from some quarters. Brazil has one of the largest gaps in income distribution in the world. The richest 10% of the population earn 28 times the average income of the bottom 40%. The richest 10 percent is almost exclusively white. One-third of the population lives under the poverty line, with blacks and other non-whites accounting for 70 percent of the poor.^[80]

Fruit sellers in Rio de Janeiro c. 1820

In the US, black people earn 75% of what white people earn.^[81] In Brazil, non-whites earn less than 50% of what whites earn. Some have posited that Brazil does in fact practice the one-drop rule when social economic factors are considered. This is because the gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and non-whites. Other factors such as illiteracy and education level show the same patterns.^[82] Unlike in the US where African Americans were united in the civil-rights struggle, in Brazil the philosophy of whitening has helped divide blacks from other non-whites and prevented a more active civil rights movement.

Though Brazilians of African heritage make up a large percentage ^[83] the population there are very few black politicians. The city of Salvador, Bahia, for instance, is 80% Afro-Brazilian but has never had a black mayor. Critics indicate that US cities that have a black majority, such as Detroit and New Orleans, have never had white mayors since first electing black mayors in the 1970s.^[79][84]

Black people in Brazil c. 1821

Non-white people also have limited media visibility. The Latin American media, in particular the Brazilian media, has been accused of hiding its Black, Indigenous, Multiracial and East Asian population. For example the telenovelas or soaps are said to be a hotbed of largely light-eyed white and light-skinned mulattoes and mestizos (often deemed as white persons in Brazil if achieving the middle class or higher social status) actors. Most rare empowered persons of color represented in Latin American media possess typically Caucasian features due to a mix of racist standards of beauty, colourism and lookism. Nevertheless, in the last years, the number of empowered afrodescendants (either economically or by other ways) increased in Brazilian media coverage. Despite Brazil also possessing criminal black man stereotypes, it is considered a huge prejudice and mostly not used in a disordered way by the media, in spite of sometimes common "humouristic" sexist jokes and LGBT stereotyping ^[85] and as such lack of politically correctness in native race issues is not a major problem (there are way more stereotypes of Asian people, Europeans or U.S. Americans, for example).

These patterns of discrimination against non-whites have led some to advocate for the use of the Portuguese term 'negro' to encompass non-whites so as to renew a black consciousness and identity, in effect an African descent rule.^[86] It generates criticism since Pardo, or Brown people, is intended to include caboclos (mestizos), assimilated Amerindians and tri-racials, not only afrodescendants — thus Brazilian of some or no recent African descent, as most White Brazilians, become 60–70% of the population, breaking the argument of possible Brazilian one-drop rule since real noticeable mulattoes, cafuzos (zambos) and black persons are a minority and the Brazilian poor represents larger percents in Brazil. As one would expect from an underdeveloped country, there are pockets of poverty in White-majority and Japanese Brazilian-majority areas, rarer in urban developments but common in rural areas. They are even more common among Mestizo-majority areas, and Amerindian communities.

In Asia and Australasia[link]

Siddi folk dancers performing at Devaliya Naka, Sasan Gir, Gujarat.

China[link]

As of August, 2008, The Migration Information Source article noted that "A Nigerian Embassy spokesman estimated that Nigerians possibly make up the largest group of Black Africans in China, with about 2,000 to 3,000 Nigerians in Guangdong in 2006. Most businessmen only stay temporarily."^[87][88]

An ethnic Ati woman of the Philippines. The Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia.

India and Southeast Asia[link]

The Great Andamanese are one of five Negrito ethnic groups (Adivasi or tribal) native to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; they are among the first inhabitants of what is now India, arriving over 70,000 years ago. They are facing extinction.^[89] The other four ethnic groups are the Jangil, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese. By their external physical appearance (phenotype) such people resemble Black Africans with dark skin and sometimes tightly coiled hair. There have been suggestions of a Black African origin. However, in the case of the Andamanese people, a study conducted by the NCBI indicated that the Andamanese people possessed closer affinities with the Southeast Asian population than with the Black African population.^[90]

In South India there are also several communities of Black African descent, such as the Sheedis/Siddis, specifically the Siddis of Karnataka, who descend from Black African slaves. In Pakistan, these descendants are known as the Makrani.

Other black people of Southeast Asia, collectively known as Negritos, include the Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand the Aeta of Luzon and the Ati of Panay in the Philippines.^[91]

Melanesia[link]

There are several groups of dark-skinned people who live in various parts of Asia, Australia and Oceania who sometimes are referred to as black people. They include the Indigenous Australians, the Melanesians (now divided into Austronesian-speaking populations and Papuans, and including the great genetic diversity of New Guinea), the Semang people of the Malay peninsula, and indigenous first nation Fijians. They are as genetically, anthropologically and culturally related to Africans only as much as all other non-Africans are related to Africans, and because of this it has been deemed controversial to label them black people in the sense of some relation to the native African peoples and the African diaspora that is not similarly present in other Asian, Oceanic or European populations.

In Europe[link]

Portrait of a black woman, Katherine, in Antwerp, 1521, by Albrecht Dürer.

United Kingdom[link]

According to the Office for National Statistics, as of the 2001 census, there are over a million black people in the United Kingdom; 1% of the total population describe themselves as "Black Caribbean", 0.8% as "Black African", and 0.2% as "Black other".^[92] Britain encouraged the immigration of workers from the Caribbean after World War II; the first symbolic movement was those who came on the ship the Empire Windrush. The preferred official umbrella term is "black and minority ethnic" (BME), but sometimes the term "black" is used on its own, to express unified opposition to racism, as in the Southall Black Sisters, which started with a mainly British Asian constituency, and the National Black Police Association, which has a membership of "African, African-Caribbean and Asian origin".^[93]

France[link]

The pioneering Chadian-French rapper MC Solaar.

While census collection of ethnic background is illegal in France, it is estimated that there are about 2.5 – 5 million black people residing there.^[94][95]

Balkans[link]

Due to the Ottoman slave trade that had flourished in the Balkans, the coastal town of Ulcinj in Montenegro had its own black community.^[96] As a consequence of the slave trade and privateer activity, a considerable number of Ulcinj inhabitants until 1878 were black.^[97] The Ottoman Army also sent an estimated 30,000 Black African troops and cavalrymen to its expedition in Hungary during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18.^[98]

Eastern Europe[link]

As African states became independent in the 1960s, the Soviet Union offered many of their citizens the chance to study in Russia. Over a period of 40 years, about 400,000 African students from various countries moved to Russia to pursue higher studies, including many Black Africans.^[99][100] This extended beyond the Soviet Union to many countries of the Eastern bloc.

A cultural classification of people as "black" exists in Russia. Certain groups of people who are ethnically different, and generally darker than ethnic Russians are pejoratively referred to as "blacks" (chernye), and face specific sorts of social exclusion (see Racism in Russia). Roma, Georgians, and Tatars fall into this category.^[101] Those referred to as "black" are from the former Soviet republics, predominantly peoples of the Caucasus, for example, Chechens.^[102] Although "Caucasian" is used in American English to mean "white people", in Russian – and most other varieties of English – it only refers to the Caucasus, not European people in general.

See also[link]

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• two African American boys Clarence 'Grandpa' Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Brothers bicycle shop, 1897(old-pictures.com database)
• Clarence Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Cycle Company, photo taken by Wright Brothers 1897(old-pictures.com)

Michael Phelps

180px Michael Phelps, April 2009
Personal information
Full name	Michael Fred Phelps[1]
Nickname(s)	MP; The Baltimore Bullet[2]; Flying Fish[3]
Nationality	USA
Born	(1985-06-30) June 30, 1985 (age 26)[4] Baltimore, Maryland
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[4]
Weight	185 lbs. 83.9 kg[5]
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Backstroke, butterfly, freestyle, individual medley
Club	North Baltimore Aquatic Club
Medal record Men's swimming Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 2004 Athens 100 m butterfly Gold 2004 Athens 200 m butterfly Gold 2004 Athens 200 m medley Gold 2004 Athens 400 m medley Gold 2004 Athens 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2004 Athens 4×100 m medley Gold 2008 Beijing 100 m butterfly Gold 2008 Beijing 200 m butterfly Gold 2008 Beijing 200 m medley Gold 2008 Beijing 400 m medley Gold 2008 Beijing 200 m freestyle Gold 2008 Beijing 4×100 m freestyle Gold 2008 Beijing 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2008 Beijing 4×100 m medley Bronze 2004 Athens 200 m freestyle Bronze 2004 Athens 4×100 m freestyle World Championships – Long Course Gold 2001 Fukuoka 200 m butterfly Gold 2003 Barcelona 200 m butterfly Gold 2003 Barcelona 200 m medley Gold 2003 Barcelona 400 m medley Gold 2003 Barcelona 4×100 m medley Gold 2005 Montreal 200 m freestyle Gold 2005 Montreal 200 m medley Gold 2005 Montreal 4×100 m freestyle Gold 2005 Montreal 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2005 Montreal 4×100 m medley Gold 2007 Melbourne 200 m freestyle Gold 2007 Melbourne 100 m butterfly Gold 2007 Melbourne 200 m butterfly Gold 2007 Melbourne 200 m medley Gold 2007 Melbourne 400 m medley Gold 2007 Melbourne 4×100 m freestyle Gold 2007 Melbourne 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2009 Rome 100 m butterfly Gold 2009 Rome 200 m butterfly Gold 2009 Rome 4×100 m freestyle Gold 2009 Rome 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2009 Rome 4×100 m medley Gold 2011 Shanghai 100 m butterfly Gold 2011 Shanghai 200 m butterfly Gold 2011 Shanghai 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2011 Shanghai 4×100 m medley Silver 2003 Barcelona 100 m butterfly Silver 2003 Barcelona 4×200 m freestyle Silver 2005 Montreal 100 m butterfly Silver 2009 Rome 200 m freestyle Silver 2011 Shanghai 200 m freestyle Silver 2011 Shanghai 200 m medley Bronze 2011 Shanghai 4×100 m freestyle World Championships – Short Course Gold 2004 Indianapolis 200 m freestyle Pan Pacific Championships Gold 2002 Yokohama 200 m medley Gold 2002 Yokohama 400 m medley Gold 2002 Yokohama 4×100 m medley Gold 2006 Victoria 200 m butterfly Gold 2006 Victoria 200 m medley Gold 2006 Victoria 400 m medley Gold 2006 Victoria 4×100 m freestyle Gold 2006 Victoria 4×200 m freestyle Gold 2010 Irvine 100 m butterfly Gold 2010 Irvine 200 m butterfly Gold 2010 Irvine 4x100 m freestyle Gold 2010 Irvine 4x200 m freestyle Gold 2010 Irvine 4x100 m medley Silver 2002 Yokohama 200 m butterfly Silver 2002 Yokohama 4×200 m freestyle Silver 2006 Victoria 200 m backstroke

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions. In doing so he has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five gold medals in individual events tied the single Games record set by compatriot Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics; his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972. Phelps' Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold. Phelps also holds the all-time record for most gold Olympic medals, at 14.

Phelps's international titles and record breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times and American Swimmer of the Year Award eight times. He has won a total of sixty-six medals in major international competition, fifty-four gold, nine silver, and three bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.

After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. As a participant in the US Anti-Doping Agency's "Project Believe" program, Phelps is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean of performance-enhancing drugs.

Early life[link]

Phelps was born and raised in the Rodgers Forge neighborhood of Towson, Maryland, a northwest suburb of Baltimore City.^[6] Michael was the youngest of three children. His mother, Deborah Sue "Debbie" (née Davisson), is a middle school principal.^[7] His father, Michael Fred Phelps, was a football player in high school and almost made the team for the Washington Redskins.^[7] His ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and German.^[8]

Phelps began swimming at the age of seven, partly because of the influence of his sisters and partly to provide him with an outlet for his energy.^[9] When Phelps was in the sixth grade, he was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).^[10][11] His parents divorced in 1994 and Michael and his sisters went to live with their mother. By the age of 10, he held a national record for his age group, and Phelps began to train at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman. More age group records followed, and Phelps' rapid improvement culminated in his qualifying for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the age of 15 and becoming the youngest male to make a U.S. Olympic swim team in 68 years.^[12] While he did not win a medal, he did make the finals and finished fifth in the 200-m butterfly.^[13]

At the World Championship Trials for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, on 22 July, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record, breaking the record previously held by Ian Thorpe when he lowered the 400-m freestyle world record at 16 years, 10 months.^[14] At the World Championships in Fukuoka, Phelps broke his own world record in the 200-m butterfly en route to becoming a world champion for the first time.^[15]

2002 Pan Pacific Championships[link]

Pan Pacific medal record
2002 Yokohama – Men's swimming
Competitor for the  United States
Gold	200 m individual medley	1:59.70
Gold	400 m individual medley	4:12.48
Gold	4 × 100 m medley relay	3:33.48 (WR)
Silver	200 m butterfly	1.55.41
Silver	4×200 m freestyle relay	7:11.81

At Nationals, the selection meet for the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, in Fort Lauderdale, Phelps set an American record in the 200-m individual medley and was just off the world record in the 200-m butterfly.^[16] In the 400-m individual medley, Phelps bettered the world record held by Tom Dolan with a time of 4:11.09, just ahead of Erik Vendt, who finished second with a time of 4:11.27, also below the old world record. In the 200-m freestyle, Phelps was barely beaten by Klete Keller and in the 100 m butterfly, Phelps beat Ian Crocker.^[17]

At the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Yokohama, Phelps won three gold medals and two silvers. In his first event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps won gold ahead of Erik Vent with a time of 4:12.48. In the 200-m butterfly, Phelps lost to Tom Malchow, finishing behind him 1:55.41 to 1:55.21. Phelps said he lost because he did not take butterfly training seriously after he broke the world record. In the 200-m individual medley, Phelps won with a time of 1:59.70. In the 4×200-m freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Nate Dusing, Klete Keller, and Chad Carvin, won the silver medal with a time 7:11.81 finishing behind Australia. The U.S. 4×100-m medley relay team consisted of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Phelps, and Ian Crocker. In the final for the medley relay, Phelps swam a 51.1 split, at the time the fastest split in history. The final time of 3:33.48 was a world record.^[18]

2003 World Championships[link]

At Nationals, Phelps won the 200-m freestyle, 200-m backstroke, and the 100-m butterfly.^[19] He became the first American swimmer to win three different races in three different strokes at a national championship.^[19] At the 2003 Duel in the Pool, a meet that pits swimming stars from Australia and the United States, Phelps broke the world record in the 400-m individual medley with a time of 4:10.73 and almost broke the world record in the 100-m butterfly, just missing the record by 0.03 seconds.^[20] At a meet in Santa Clara, Phelps broke the world record in the 200-m individual medley with a time of 1:57.94.^[21] Phelps said he broke the 200-m individual medley world record after Don Talbot said Phelps was unproven, using his words as motivation.^[22]

At the 2003 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won four gold medals, two silver medals, and broke five world records.^[23] Phelps broke his first world record on July 22 in the semi-finals for the 200-m butterfly. Phelps swam a 1:53.93 to break his own world record of 1:54.58 set in 2001 and became the first man to swim under 1:54.00.^[24] In the final of the 200-m butterfly, on July 23, Phelps easily won the gold medal, but did not come close to his world record with a time of 1:54.35.^[25] Less than an hour later, Phelps swam the lead-off leg for the 4×200-m freestyle relay. Phelps put up a solid time of 1:46.60 (an American record) but the Americans could not match the depth of the Australians and ultimately finished second 7:10.26 to 7:08.58.^[26] In the 200-m individual medley, Phelps showed complete dominance. On July 24, in the semifinals of the 200-m IM, Phelps broke his own world record with a time of 1:57.52.^[27] On July 25, in the final of the 200-m IM, Phelps smashed his own record with a time of 1:56.04 to win the gold medal and finished almost 3 seconds ahead of Ian Thorpe.^[28] About an hour before the final of the 200-m IM, Phelps swam in the semifinals of the 100-m butterfly. Phelps again showed dominance, finishing in the top seed with a world record time of 51.47.^[29] However, in the final of the 100-m butterfly, on July 26, Ian Crocker erased Phelps' world record with a time of 50.98, to become the first man under 51 seconds. Phelps swam a 51.10 (also under his former world record), but had to settle for silver.^[30] In the final of the 400-m individual medley, on July 27, Phelps broke his own world record with a time of 4:09.09 to easily claim the gold medal.^[31] About half an hour later, Phelps earned his final gold medal when the United States team won the 4×100-m medley relay.^[32] Phelps did not swim in the finals, but still earned a medal because he swam in the heats.^[33]

2004 Summer Olympics[link]

Trials[link]

At the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Phelps competed in six events, including the 200- and 400-m IM, the 100- and 200-m butterfly, the 200-m freestyle, and the 200-m backstroke.^[34] In his first event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps easily won with a world record time of 4:08.41.^[35] Two days later, in the 200-m freestyle, Phelps won with a time of 1:46.27, finishing sixth-tenths of a second ahead of Klete Keller.^[36] Phelps, however, was not pleased with the result and wanted to be in the 1:45s and was uncertain if he would swim the event in Athens.^[37] The following day, Phelps won in the 200-m butterfly with a time of 1:54.31, three seconds ahead of second place finisher Tom Malchow.^[38] After two days off, Phelps was back in the pool and finished second to Aaron Peirsol in the 200-m backstroke.^[39] Less than half an hour later, Phelps won the 200 m individual medley title ahead of Ryan Lochte by 2.70 seconds.^[40][41] The following day, Phelps finished second to Ian Crocker in the 100 m butterfly. Crocker won in a time of 50.76, a world record and 0.39 seconds ahead of Phelps.^[42] When the Trials were over, Phelps became the first person to qualify in six individual events for a U.S. Olympic team.^[43] However, Phelps dropped the 200-m backstroke to focus on the 200-m freestyle because he wanted to race Ian Thorpe.^[43] Even though Phelps didn't compete in the 100-m freestyle at the Trials, he was still selected for the 4×10-m freestyle relay. Gary Hall, Jr. thought this was unfair and said Phelps did not deserve a spot on the relay. Phelps argued his program was too crowded to compete in 100-m freestyle and was at least among the top four swimmers because he had beaten the top-seeded Jason Lezak the last time he had swum against him.^[44]

Olympics[link]

In his first event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps won with a world record time of 4:08.26 to win his first Olympic gold medal.^[45][46] The following day, in the 4×100-m freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Ian Crocker, Neil Walker, and Jason Lezak, finished in third place with a time of 3:14.62.^[47][48] Crocker's lead-off time of 50.05 was the worst among the field and was blamed on sickness.^[49][50] In the event many were calling The Race of the Century, held the following day, Phelps finished in third place behind Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200-m freestyle.^[51][52] Although this race ended the chance to match Spitz's record, Phelps had savored the challenge even though it was not his strongest event, saying "How can I be disappointed? I swam in a field with the two fastest freestylers of all time".^[53] In his fourth event, the 200-m butterfly, held the following day, Phelps finished first with a time of 1:54.04, breaking Tom Malchow's Olympic record.^[54][55] About an hour later, in the 4×200-m freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Klete Keller, finished in first place with a time of 7:07.33.^[56] Two days later, in the 200-m individual medley, Phelps finished first with a time of 1:57.14, an Olympic record.^[57] In the 100-m butterfly final, held the following day, Phelps defeated American teammate Ian Crocker (who held the world record in the event at the time) by just 0.04 seconds with a time of 51.25.^[58][59] Traditionally, the Olympian who places highest in an individual event will be automatically given the corresponding leg of the 4×100 m medley relay. This gave Phelps an automatic entry into the medley relay, but he deferred and Crocker swam instead.^[59][60] Phelps' gesture gave Crocker a chance to make amends as well getting his final shot at a gold medal.^[60] The American medley team went on to win the event in world-record time, and, since Phelps had raced in a preliminary heat of the medley relay, he was also awarded a gold medal along with the team members who competed in the final.^[61][62] In winning six gold and two bronze medals, Phelps, still a teenager, had the second-best performance ever at a single Olympics, behind Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in Munich in 1972. Also, he became the second male swimmer ever to win more than two individual titles at a single Games with four, tying Spitz's four from 1972.

2005 World Championships[link]

Victory lap of the 100 m butterfly during the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montréal. Phelps is far right.

At the 2005 World Championship Trials, Phelps decided to drop his specialty events, the 400-m individual medley and the 200-m butterfly, and experiment with the 400-m freestyle and the 100-m freestyle.^[63] Phelps went on to win the 400-m freestyle, the 200-m freestyle, the 100-m butterfly, the 100-m freestyle, and the 200-m individual medley at the Trials.^{[64][65][66][67][68]}

At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won a total of six medals, 5 golds and one silver.^[69] In the 400-m freestyle, Phelps did not make it past the preliminary heats and finished 18th overall with a time of 3:50.53.^[70] Later that day, in the 4×100-m freestyle relay, Phelps won his first gold in the Championships.^[71] Two days later, on July 26, Phelps won his second gold in the 2000m freestyle with a new American record time of 1:45.20, finishing ahead of Grant Hackett.^[72] Two days later, on July 28, Phelps finished 7th in the 100-m freestyle final.^[73] Later that day, Phelps won his third gold in the 200-m individual medley.^[74] On July 29, Phelps, along with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay and Klete Keller, won the gold in the 4×200-m freestyle relay with a time of 7:06.58. This was the fourth gold medal for Phelps.^[75] On July 30, Phelps swam in his last individual event, the 100-m butterfly. In the final, Phelps could not match the speed of Ian Crocker and had to settle for silver, finishing 51.65 to 50.40.^[76] On July 31, Phelps earned his final gold medal when the United States team won the 4×100-m medley relay.^[77] Phelps did not swim in the finals but still earned a medal because he swam in the heats.^[78]

2006 Pan Pacific Championships[link]

At the 2006 National Championships, Phelps won a total of three events.^[79] In his first event, the 200-m butterfly, Phelps won with a time of 1:54.32.^[80] In his second event, the 100-m butterfly, Phelps just edged out Ian Crocker 51.51 to 51.73.^[81] In his third event, the 200-m individual medley, Phelps won with a time of 1:56.50, just ahead of Ryan Lochte's time of 1:56.78.^[82]

At the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Victoria, Phelps won five gold medals and one silver.^[83] In his first event, the 200-m butterfly, Phelps won in a world record time of 1:53.80, his first world record in two years.^[84] In his second event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps easily won with a time of 4:10.47, 3.38 seconds ahead of second place finisher Robert Margalis.^[85] In his third event, the 4×200-m freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, and Klete Keller, won the gold medal with a time of 7:05.28.^[86] In his fourth event, the 200-m backstroke, Phelps won the silver medal, finishing behind Aaron Peirsol 1:56.81 to 1:54.44.^[87] In his fifth event, the 4×100-m freestyle relay, Phelps, along with Neil Walker, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak, won the gold medal with a world-record time 3:12.46.^[88] In his sixth event, the 200-m individual medley, Phelps won with a world record time of 1:55.84, breaking his record of 1:55.94 set in 2003.^[89]

2007 World Championships[link]

At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships, Phelps won seven gold medals, tying the record, and broke five world records.^[90] Phelps first gold medal came in the 4×100-m freestyle. Phelps swam the lead-off leg in 48.42 and Neil Walker, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak each expanded the lead to win in a Championship record of 3:12.72, just missing the world record of 3:12.46 set the previous year.^[91] Phelps set his first world record in the Championships in the 200-m freestyle, his second race. Phelps won the gold ahead of Pieter van den Hoogenband and broke Ian Thorpe's six-year-old world record with a time of 1:43.86.^[92] For his third race, the 200-m butterfly, Phelps won the gold and bettered his own world record of 1:53.71 with a time of 1:52.09.^[93] For his fourth race, the 200-m individual medley, Phelps set his third world record with a time of 1:54.98, bettering his own world-record time of 1:55.84^[94] For his fifth race, the 4×200-m freestyle relay, Phelps swam the lead-off leg in 1:45.36 as the American team of Ryan Lochte, Klete Keller, and Peter Vanderkaay went on to win the gold medal and beat the previous world record set by Australia in 2001 with a time 7:03.24.^[95] For his sixth race, the 100-m butterfly, Phelps edged out Ian Crocker 50.77 to 50.82 to win his sixth gold medal.^[96] For his seventh event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps won the gold medal in a world-record time of 4:06.22, more than 3.5 seconds ahead of Ryan Lochte.^[97] The 4×100-m medley relay team would have competed in the final, but received a disqualification for a false start during a changeover in the heats, ending Phelps' chance of eight gold medals.^[98]

2008 Summer Olympics[link]

Trials[link]

At the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Phelps competed in six individual events. In his first event, the 400-m individual medley, Phelps broke his own world record of 4:06.22 with a time of 4:05.25.^[99] In his second event, the 200-m freestyle, Phelps won with a time of 1:44.10, ahead of Peter Vanderkaay's time 1:45.85.^[100] In his third event, the 100-m freestyle, Phelps placed second in his heat with a time of 47.92, ensuring him a spot on the relay.^[101] In his fourth event, the 200-m butterfly, Phelps won with a time of 1:52.20.^[102] In his fifth event, the 200-m individual medley, Phelps broke his own world record of 1:54.98 with a time of 1:54.80.^[103] In his sixth and final event, the 100-m butterfly, Phelps won with a time of 50.89.^[104] When asked about his chances of winning eight gold medals in Beijing, Phelps said, "I am going to prepare for that meet just like I do every other meet ... There is only so much I can do in a month and then I am going to prepare myself the best that I can."^[105]

Olympics[link]

Phelps set an Olympic record in the preliminary heats of the men's 400-m individual medley.^[106][107] He followed that up in the final by winning the gold medal, as well as breaking his previous world record by nearly two seconds.^[108][109]

Phelps swam the first leg of the men's 4×100-m freestyle relay in a time of 47.51 seconds (an American record for the 100-m freestyle), and won his second gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, as well as setting his second world record of the Olympics (3:08.24).^[110] Teammate Jason Lezak, after beginning the anchor leg more than half a body length behind Alain Bernard, managed to finish ahead of the second-place French team by eight hundredths of a second. The top five teams in the final finished ahead of the world record of 3:12.23 set the previous day by the American B team in a preliminary heat.^[111]

For his third race, Phelps broke his previous world record in the 200-m freestyle by nearly a second and won his third gold medal. He also set his third world record at the Olympics, 1:42.96, winning by nearly two seconds over silver medalist Park Tae-Hwan.^[112] In this race, Phelps became only the fifth Olympic athlete in modern history to win nine gold medals, joining Mark Spitz, Larisa Latynina, Paavo Nurmi, and Carl Lewis.^[113]

Phelps holds his gold medal on the podium on August 10, 2008. Pictured with Ryan Lochte and László Cseh

The next day, Phelps participated in two finals. In his first event, the 200 m butterfly, Phelps made it four gold medals and world records in four events by swimming the final in 1:52.03, defeating silver medalist László Cseh by almost seven-tenths of a second despite his goggles' having filled up with water and being unable to "see anything for the last 100 meters.^[114] This fourth gold medal was his tenth, and made him the all-time leader for most Olympic gold medals won by an individual in the modern Olympic era.^[115]

Less than one hour after his gold medal victory in the 200-m butterfly, Phelps swam the lead-off leg of the 4×200-m freestyle relay. With Lochte, Ricky Berens, and Peter Vanderkaay, he won his fifth gold and set his fifth world record as the American team finished first with a time of 6:58.56. The Americans were the first team to break the seven-minute mark in the relay, and broke the previous record, set in Melbourne, Australia, by more than four and a half seconds.^[116]

After taking a day off from finals (Phelps did swim in qualifying heats), Phelps won his sixth gold of the Beijing Games on August 15 by winning the 200-m individual medley with a world record time of 1:54.23, finishing ahead of Cseh by over two seconds.^[117]

7th gold medal and controversy[link]

Before the final of the 100-m butterfly, Serbian-American swimmer Milorad Čavić caused a minor stir when he said it would be "good" if Phelps lost. "It'd be good for him if he loses. It would be nice if historians talk about Michael Phelps winning seven gold medals and losing the eight to 'some guy.' I'd like to be that guy", Čavić said.^[118] Phelps responded, "When people say things like that, it fires me up more than anything."^[119] On August 16, Phelps won his seventh gold medal of the Games in the men's 100-m butterfly, setting an Olympic record for the event with a time of 50.58 seconds and edging out his nearest competitor Čavić, by 1/100 of a second.^[120]

Unlike all six of his previous events in the 2008 Games, Phelps did not set a new world record, leaving intact Ian Crocker's world-record time of 50.40 seconds, set in 2005.

Phelps's 0.01-second finish ahead of Čavić prompted the Serbian delegation to file a protest. Subsequent analysis of the video by the FINA panel, which required analyzing frames shot 1/10,000th of a second apart, was used to officially confirm Phelps's victory,^[121] but the images were not immediately released to the press. The initial refusal by official timekeeper Omega to release underwater photos of the finish also raised questions due to Phelps's sponsorship relationship with Omega.^[122] Čavić later wrote in his blog, "People, this is the greatest moment of my life. If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I've accepted defeat, and there's nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been".^[123] However, in August 2009, Omega officials admitted that while Čavić "for sure" touched the wall first, "Phelps did it more forcefully," thus registering the time first.^[124]

Phelps's seventh gold medal of the Games tied Mark Spitz's record for gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, set in the 1972 Olympics. It was also his fifth individual gold medal in Beijing, tying the record for individual gold medals at a single Games originally set by Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Said Phelps upon setting his seventh-straight Olympic record of the Games in as many events, "Dream as big as you can dream, and anything is possible ... I am sort of in a dream world. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it is real."

Michael Phelps celebrates with his team-mates after winning his 8th gold medal.

All-time record[link]

On August 17, Phelps won his eighth gold medal in the men's 4×100-m medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972.^[126] Phelps, along with teammates Brendan Hansen, Aaron Peirsol, and Jason Lezak, set a new world record in the event with a time of 3 minutes and 29.34 seconds, 0.7 seconds ahead of second-place Australia and 1.34 seconds faster than the previous record set by the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. When Phelps dived in to swim the 100-m butterfly leg, the third leg of the 400-meter medley, the United States had been trailing Australia and Japan. Phelps completed his split in 50.1 seconds, the fastest butterfly split ever for the event, giving teammate Jason Lezak a more than half-second lead for the final leg, which he would hold onto to clinch the event in world record time.^[127] Said Phelps, upon completing the event that awarded him his eighth gold medal and eighth Olympic record in as many events, "Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are ... Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to."^[128]

2009 World Championships[link]