Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals in the Bejing Olympics in the summer of 2008 to beat Mark Spitz's record of most gold medals won in a single Olympic. He wouldn't have won if it was not for his relay team, in the final 100 meters Ryan Lochte came back from a full body length to win the relay. Even more exciting was in the 100 meter Butterfly Michael Phelps beat out his opponent by a split second to win his 8th gold medal.When Phelps won that the news was all over the world and ESPN was
covering that topic for days!

Just as great as Michael Phelps, but perhaps overshadowed by Phelps 8 medals was Usain Bolt, a runner from Jamaica that was as fast as his name sounded, in the 200 meter dash Bolt blew everyone away and broke the world record time jogging in the final 10 meters. At the rate he was going at, he would probably be able to fly out of the Birds Nest(the olympic stadium) and back to Jamaica.
Source:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/index