BEIJING -- Michael Phelps had to settle for seven out of eight in the Beijing Olympics, breaking seven world records on the way to a record eight gold medals.

Phelps has now won the most gold medals by any athlete in an Olympic games. The previous record of seven golds was held by Mark Spitz, which Phelps matched Saturday.

After a Saturday victory in which Phelps outdueled Serbia's Milorad Cavic by .01 seconds, the U.S. 400-meter medley relay team dominated, beating silver medal winner Australia and notching a world-record time of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds. The team from Japan took the bronze medal. Australia finished in 3:30:04 and Japan finished in 3:31:18.

The team, which included Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak along with Phelps, had compiled a total of 10 medals, 8 gold, coming into tonight's competition and was favored.

Phelps swam the butterfly leg, a stroke with which he'd already won two individual golds.

The victory capped an evening in which 41-year-old Dara Torres took the silver in the women's 50-meter freestyle, coming in .01 seconds behind Britta Steffen of Germany. She then anchored the U.S. women's 400-meter medley team in a silver medal-winning effort, falling to a strong Australian team.

The only real worry for the men's team coming into the race was the possibility of disqualification. In 2007, at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Ian Crocker left his platform early and the team was disqualified. Crocker was on the preliminary team in Beijing, which had a clean race, but was not part of the medal-winning quartet.

The U.S. swept the men's relays in Beijing, with Phelps leading off in the 400 and 800 free relays. Lezak anchored the 400 free to a narrow victory over France to preserve Phelps' historic bid.