Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Natalie Coughlin Win Gold for the USA

The Water Cube in Beijing had four finals with two Americans in each race on Tuesday morning. Seven out of eight US swimmers took home a medal. Only Megan Jendrick, who won the women's 100m breaststroke in Sydney, did not walk away with hardware around her neck.

All told, the US won seven of the 12 medals awarded at the Pool Tuesday morning—three gold, two silver, and two bronze.

Michael Phelps breezed to a gold medal in the men's 200m freestyle to capture his third gold of the Olympic Games with another world record time of 1:42.96, improving the previous one by almost a second. Phelps' training partner Peter Vanderkaay took the bronze for the US in 1:45.14.

In the second final, Natalie Coughlin earned her third career gold medal and defended her title from 2004. She came first in the women's 100m backstroke in a time of 58.96 seconds. This was her sixth medal at the Olympics after earning two gold, two silver, and a bronze four years ago. Margaret Hoelzer helped the US go one-three again, earning the bronze in a time of 59.34.

In the men's 100m backstroke, Aaron Peirsol managed to defend his Olympic title, breaking his world record with a time of 52.54. Despite not having the greatest start, he surged to the lead with about 25m to go. Right behind Piersol was US teammate Matt Grevers, who got the silver medal with a time of 53.11.

In the last final of the day, American Rebecca Soni finished second behind Australia's Liesel Jones in the 100m breaststroke to earn the silver with a time of 1:06.73. Megan Jendrick (she was 16 year-old Megan Quann back in 2000), finished fifth, just .28 seconds behind bronze medalist Mirna Jukic of Austria.

Seven out of eight medals and three out of four golds wasn't the end for the Americans. Less than an hour after his gold medal performance in the 200m freestyle, Michael Phelps tied the Olympic record in the 200m butterfly semifinals (1:53.70). The record secured him a place in Wednesday's final as the lead qualifier in an event he has not lost on international stage since the 2000 Olympics.

Perhaps forgotten in all of this was the importance of Phelps' performance tonight. He earned his third gold medal of these games, his ninth career gold, which ties him with four others (including Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz) for the most gold medals ever.

This was also his 11th career medal (he also had a silver and bronze in Athens), tying him with Matt Biondi and Mark Spitz for the most career medals won by an American swimmer. But, in 24 hours, I expect this to just be a footnote, as Michael Phelps continues to re-write the record book and become undoubtedly the greatest Olympic champion of all time.