The superlatives may have all been exhausted in describing the ongoing performance of Michael Phelps in Beijing who, last night, won his sixth gold medal at these Olympics, this one in the 200-meter individual medley, and stands just one step from Mark Spitz' record of seven golds in a single Olympics.  Phelps has two more races to go, the 100 butterfly and the 400 medley relay.

And on top of the six straight gold medals, every one of them has represented a world record.

In trying to frame what Phelps is accomplishing at these Olympic Games, I defer to Sun colleague Kevin Van Valkenburg, who is on the scene in Beijing and who has chronicled all things Phelps for some time.  This was the final sentence of Kevin's' story in today's paper about Phelps' win in the 200 IM:

As he climbed out of the pool, he raised a weary arm in the direction of the crowd. They responded with polite applause, perhaps still in awe of the man who, this week, has made the remarkable look almost routine.

"Made the remarkable look almost routine."  And that does put the Phelps Phenomenon in perspective.

I think that sense that this is all so casual for Phelps comes mostly from Phelps himself in the way he conducts himself apart from his feats in the water. That he is unfailingly polite and upbeat and, well, just a nice kid from Towson.  That he becomes immersed in the tunes on his iPod, furiously text messages with his friends and has a passion for video games just like any other young adult. That he has a just-between-friends greeting with teammate Ryan Lochte. That he leaves his gold medal from last night's victory in his warm-up jacket pocket while he goes out to swim in a qualifying heat for the 100 fly.

But let's all remember this as we watch.  While Phelps may make it look routine, it's unlikely we will we ever see anything like it ever again.