Michael Phelps became the most decorated athlete in Olympic history when his gold in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay took him to 19.
The 27-year-old had equalled Larisa Latynina's record earlier this evening with silver in the 200m butterfly.
However, the United States swimmer moved him beyond the Russian whose record had stood since 1964 to stand alone at the pinnacle with three more events to come.
The American has always maintained he is not interested in medal counts and will be furious with himself after Chad le Clos beat him on the touch in his first race of the evening - the 200m butterfly.
It is a measure of the expectations placed on the Baltimore swimmer that there was audible shock around the Aquatics Centre, a feeling of deflation even.
However, credit is due to Le Clos who swam a superb race to take advantage of Phelps' poor judgement, the American gliding into the wall rather than finishing on a full stroke as has been his hallmark.
The South African won in one minute 52.96 seconds, 0.05secs ahead of Phelps with Japan's Takeshi Matsuda third.
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