Just two more gold medals and Michael Phelps will be relieved of the burden of history, for history would then be his.

The beyond-adjectives US swimmer picked up his sixth gold, in 200-m men's individual medley, in Beijing Friday, equaling his Athens record and taking his total Games' tally to 12, itself a record.

He can emulate Mark Spitz's seven-gold record at a single Games today, and go beyond it tomorrow. And then he can sleep on his laurels for the rest of his life.

He truly is the "the icon of the Games", said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge. Any doubts?

At his first official appearance at the Games competition, President Hu Jintao watched the women's volleyball match between China and the US, which the hosts lost.

The Bird's Nest saw a capacity crowd of 90,000 on the first day of track and field events Friday. Poland's Tomasz Majewski throw the shot put 21.51 m to win the men's gold.

Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba clocked an Olympic record of 29:54.68 to win the gold in the women's 10,000m race.

Britain beat France for gold in the men's cycling team sprint, avenging three straight losses to their top rivals at the world championships. Germany, the defending Olympic champion, nipped Australia by 0.008 seconds for the bronze medal.

For the hosts, Cao Lei won the seventh weightlifting gold. She snatched 128kg and lifted 154kg for the clean and jerk, grabbing the gold in the 75kg with a total lift of 282kg.

Cao Lei of China competes in the women's 75 kg weightlifting event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 15, 2008. Cao won the gold medal in the event. [Agencies]

Cao later said her thoughts were with her recently deceased mother, to whom she dedicated her win.