Phelps makes it 6 for 6 with another world mark, this time in the 200 IM.

BEIJING -- Michael Phelps is a minute away -- actually less than that, under 51 seconds, in fact -- from joining Mark Spitz on the Olympic podium of history, a tantalizing gold medal from tying Spitz’s record seven in one Olympics.

Hello, morning glory.

And, yes, the never-ending story is Phelps, who is becoming a man of spectacular repetition at the Water Cube. This morning, he won his sixth gold medal of these Games and 12th overall.

Another gold medal. Another world record. Another bouquet given to a proud family member in the stands.

Phelps lowered his own world mark in the 200-meter individual medley, winning in 1 minute 54.23 seconds. Finishing second and third were two familiar figures in Phelps’ vast wake. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, who took second to Phelps in the 400 individual medley, won silver again, in 1:56.52, and Ryan Lochte grabbed the bronze in 1:56.53.

Then there was his next act. It’s all about the time element around here, and Phelps was equally impressive, having only seven minutes from the medal ceremony to get out to the blocks for his semifinal of the 100 butterfly.

“I didn’t know I had as little time as I had,” Phelps said.

He also got past that hurdle with little trouble, putting up the second-fastest qualifying time in the 100 fly, in 50.97, just behind Milorad (Mike) Cavic. Cavic swims for Serbia, but he was born in Anaheim and went to Tustin High School. Ian Crocker, the world-record holder, tied for the third-fastest time (51.27).

So an American-born swimmer, Cavic, might stop one of the best U.S. sports stories in decades.

“It’d be good for the sport and good for him if he lost. Just once,” Cavic said, smiling.

Could Cavic disrupt the script? Well, it did go off a bit here before Phelps got the morning back on message after shock result after result had reverberated through the water.

The prelude to Phelps’ win was a dizzying whirl of results. Alone, in a non-Phelps world, they ordinarily would be headlines.

Rebecca Soni of USC staged perhaps the biggest upset on the women’s side since Misty Hyman stunned Susie O’Neill in the 200 butterfly eight years ago in Sydney.

Again, it was the U.S. trumping Australia. Soni, who had a heart operation in 2006, won gold in the 200 breaststroke in a world-record 2:20.22, crushing the current holder, Leisel Jones, by 1.83 seconds. Jones had set the mark of 2:20.54 at the world championships last year in Melbourne.

Next was another upset, though not nearly as big as Soni’s.

Lochte won his first individual gold medal, unseating the defending Olympic champion, Aaron Peirsol, in the 200 backstroke. It was a repeat of his win over Peirsol at the world championships.

Lochte lowered his own mark this morning despite, well, an equipment malfunction, going 1:53.94 to Peirsol’s 1:54.33.

“It just felt good the whole way,” Lochte said. “My suit came undone in the first 50. I was just trying to keep my legs going for the last 100 as much as possible.”

Lochte spoke about his difficult double, the backstroke at 10:19 a.m. here and the 200 individual medley at 10:48.

“You kind of forget about the pain and everything after a win,” Lochte said. “I kind of forgot about it and got ready for my next race.”

Peirsol, of Irvine, was his usual classy self. He also won a silver in this event in 2000, and did not say whether this was it for him after a long and impressive career.

“I swam the best I could possibly swim,” said Peirsol, who also won gold here in the 100 backstroke. “I’m proud I hung in there like I did. That’s all I had. That’s all I could hope for.”

He was asked if the loss would affect his legacy.

“I don’t know if I’m going to look at it that way,” he said. “It really doesn’t take anything from my career. A race is a race. You can get beat, no one owns anything.”

The reserved, almost shy Soni beamed and thrust her arm in the air when she spotted her time and result. She now has a gold and a silver, which came in the 100 breaststroke, and could add one more medal in the medley relay.

This was the race of her life.

“I just kind of flowed. It just kind of happened,” Soni said. “I just tried to stay relaxed and not rush through the water and keep my stroke strong, and just power it through the end.”

And she had an incredible reserve. This was one strong-minded individual, and she spoke about the “long road to get here” after the heart operation. Her surgery to deal with a rapid heartbeat was called “minor,” but, of course, when it’s the heart, nothing is minor.

“The last 50, I had plenty left in me and I saw Leisel next to me and I was just pushing for the wall,” she said. “I was trying to just hold on.”

Natalie Coughlin increased her career Olympic medal total to 10 overall with her bronze in the 100 freestyle. She took third, in 53.39, behind Britta Steffen of Germany (53.12) and Libby Trickett of Australia (53.16).

Coughlin has won five medals here, two in relays and the other three in individual events, including a gold in the 100 backstroke.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Smokin’ on the water

U.S. swimmers set three world records in the four finals this morning:

WOMEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE -- Rebecca Soni, U.S. 2:20.22

MEN’S 200 BACKSTROKE -- Ryan Lochte, U.S. 1:53.94

MEN’S 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY -- Michael Phelps, U.S. 1:54.23

Los Angeles Times

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

MICHAEL PHELPS: THE RACE FOR EIGHT

At Athens in 2004, Phelps won six gold medals. In Beijing, he hopes to eclipse Mark Spitz’s record of seven.

His eight events:

[ 1 ]

GOLD

400

individual medley

In 2004: Gold

[ 2 ]

GOLD

4X100

freestyle relay

In 2004: Bronze

[ 3 ]

GOLD

200

freestyle

In 2004: Bronze

[ 4 ]

GOLD

200

butterfly

In 2004: Gold

[ 5 ]

GOLD

4X200

freestyle relay

In 2004: Gold

[ 6 ]

GOLD

200

individual medley

In 2004: Gold

[ 7 ]

TODAY

100

butterfly

In 2004: Gold

[ 8 ]

SATURDAY

4x100

medley relay

In 2004: Gold