This Week’s Top 10 WaPo Sports Stories: Phelps Week

This week’s most popular sports topic: Swimmer dude. (By Jonathan Newton - TWP)

Who’s the biggest star of the Olympics? Michael Phelps? Usain Bolt? The Chinese teenage gymnast fan club? The Chinese divers? The Redeem Team?

Judging by our numbers, for WaPo readers, it’s Phelps, in a rout. For the second straight week, he battled the Redskins at the top of our most-read-sports-story list, and this time he came out on top.

(Newcomers to this blog who are only here to read about the Olympics: each Friday, more or less, I list the Top 10 sports stories and columns from our Web site over the past week, Friday through Thursday.)

This week’s list:

1. At the Wall, Phelps Has the Touch, by Barry Svrluga. Olympics game story about Phelps earning his seventh gold with a victory by a hundredth of a second in the 100-meter butterfly.

2. Favre Starts for Jets, Brennan Finishes for Redskins, by Jason Reid. Redskins game story about the team’s 13-10 scrimmage victory over the Jets in New Jersey.

3. Phelps Earns Eighth Gold, by Barry Svrluga. Olympics game story, about Michael Phelps, you know, earning his eighth gold with a world record in the 4×100-meter relay.

4. Lightning Strikes Twice, by Amy Shipley. Olympics game story about the chaos in the 200-meter finals, with Usain Bolt setting a world record amid “a disqualification, a protest, an acceptance, an appeal and a second disqualification.”

5. So Far, So Good for Cerrato the Football Boss, by Mike Wise. Redskins column offering a light peck on the cheek to Redskins boss Vinny Cerrato, since everyone loves everyone in the preseason.

6. Small School, Big Goals: Would-Be Redskin Westbrook Can Taste the NFL, by Mark Viera. Redskins feature on second-year cornerback and special teamer Byron Westbrook trying to make the 53-man roster out of Salisbury.

7. After Eight Gold Medals, What’s Next For Phelps?, by Barry Svrluga and Liz Clarke. Olympics feature wrapping up the Games for Phelps, who still wants to change the sport of swimming.

8. Boxing is Absorbing a Few Hits, by Les Carpenter. Olympics analysis on the judging controversies that have rankled boxers from several countries this month, and the boxing federation’s defense of its officials.

9. Rocky’s Road Gets Smoother, by Jason Reid. Redskins feature on the good moods and good healthy enjoyed by linebacker Rocky McIntosh eight months after reconstructive knee surgery.

10. Phelps Sparks American Title Wave, by Barry Svrluga. Olympics game story about Michael Phelps winning his sixth gold medal by setting a world record in the 200-meter individual medley.

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