By Jaime Aron

The Associated Press

BEIJING — Michael Phelps isn’t just living up to his ridiculously high expectations. He’s exceeding them.

After setting an Olympic record on his first dive into the Beijing Olympics pool, Phelps lowered his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley by a whopping 1.41 seconds to easily win the first of his hoped-for eight gold medals. And this was supposed to be his weakest event.

The huge smile on his face after touching the wall and seeing his time was pure joy and, perhaps, a bit of relief. One down, seven to go.

Phelps’ victory moved the United States into a tie with China atop the gold-medal race — 2-2 a few hours into day two.

Add bronze medals for swimmers Ryan Lochte, Larsen Jensen and Katie Hoff, and the Americans were up to seven overall medals this morning, another Olympics best thus far. That’s pretty good considering the U.S. was shut out going into the final final of opening day — lagging behind Cuba, Uzbekistan and 16 other countries.

Then came some serious slicing and dicing at the fencing hall. Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward went 1-2-3 in saber, putting the U.S. on the medals chart, smack dab on top.

The first day in Beijing, however, will be remembered more for tragedy — the stabbings of Todd and Barbara Bachman and their Chinese tour guide and the suicide of their Chinese attacker. Todd Bachman was killed, and Barbara Bachman was in stable but critical condition this morning after eight hours of surgery Saturday.

The Bachmans are the parents of former U.S. Olympian Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon and the in-laws of current men’s volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. They were at a tourist site when the man attacked them and then jumped off a 130-foot-high balcony.

Playing hours after learning about the attack on the Bachmans, the U.S. women’s team beat Japan 3-1. Emotions came pouring out after, with Logan Tom bursting into tears.

“God, we all love Wiz,” Tom said, referring to her former teammate by her nickname. “It’s hard to put it in words. That’s not something that’s supposed to happen.”

Swimming

Since Phelps’ win was somewhat expected, perhaps the bigger news at the Water Cube was that Hoff finished third in the 400 IM, losing the race — and her world record — to Australia’s Stephanie Rice. Elizabeth Beisel, the 15-year-old American who finished first in qualifying, was fourth.

Phelps’ biggest foe in the 400 IM was supposed to be Lochte, who led more than halfway through the race. But the big guy couldn’t be denied, his winning time more than four seconds faster than his victory in Athens. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver, while Lochte finished third.

When Phelps looked up, he saw President Bush and his family waving and cheering.

“That was a pretty cool feeling to have the president say congratulations and have him in the crowd,” Phelps said.

In the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay, reigning world champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea won the gold, Zhang Lin of China took silver and Jensen was third. Favored Aussie Grant Hackett of Australia wilted from first to sixth.

Later, 41-year-old Dara Torres and the U.S. women were going to try to take down China in the 400 freestyle relay.

Beach volleyball

The U.S. duo of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor began their bid for another gold medal with a decisive victory over a Japanese duo this morning. But the top U.S. men’s team already had been upset.

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser — defending world champions and winners of 21 straight international matches — lost to a Latvian team that was seeded 23rd in the 24-team field. Now they must win their next two pool-play matches to get into the medal round.

Shooting

The first gold medal of the Games went to Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic, the wife of U.S. shooter Matt Emmons. The couple met in Athens and hope to celebrate gold medals together.

She was on target from the start of the 10-meter air rifle, shooting a perfect 400 in qualifying, then finishing with an Olympic record of 503.5. Favorite Du Li of China was only one point behind after qualifying, but nerves got in her way while trying to win the first event for the host country.

“I wasn’t fully prepared for the pressure of competing at home,” Du said.

Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver and Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took the bronze. Jamie Beyerle of Lebanon, Pa., finished fourth.

Pang Wei handled the home country pressure just fine, easily outlasting two Koreans in the finals of the men’s 10-meter air pistol. When it was over, Pang — the 2006 world champion — turned and waved his hat in the air while the home crowd cheered. Americans Jason Turner and Brian Beaman were fourth and fifth.

Gymnastics

The U.S. men finished atop their qualifying group with a score good enough to clinch a spot in the team finals. Thus, even without injured stars Paul and Morgan Hamm, the Americans still have a shot at a medal — even if it’s a slim one.

“To make a major team personnel change, compete in the first subdivision and qualify for the team finals is a huge accomplishment, and we are looking forward to competing on Tuesday,” U.S. coach Kevin Mazeika said.

China, winner of three straight world championships and the overwhelming favorite, lived up to it by soaring to the top of the pack.

Women’s basketball

Diana Taurasi scored 17 points and Sylvia Fowles added 16 points and 14 rebounds to send the U.S. women strolling past the Czech Republic 97-57 in front of President Bush and the U.S. men’s team. Next up for the Americans is host China.

WNBA star Lauren Jackson led medal favorite Australia with 18 points and 10 rebounds in an 83-64 victory over Belarus. The Opals lost the last two Olympic finals to the United States but are reigning world champions.

In other matches, China beat Spain 67-64, South Korea needed overtime to beat Brazil 68-62 and New Zealand edged Mali 76-72.

Women’s soccer

Midfielder Carli Lloyd scored on a first-half volley to lead the U.S. women past Japan 1-0 in their first game since a 2-0 loss to Norway.

The Americans created a host of scoring opportunities but capitalized only in the 27th minute, when Lloyd volleyed a cross from defender Stephanie Cox just under the crossbar. Goals are at a premium for this club with scoring leader Abby Wambach out with an injury.

China tied Canada 1-1, putting the host country in position to advance to the quarterfinals. Also, two-time FIFA Player of the Year Marta scored to help Brazil beat North Korea 2-1; Sweden beat Argentina 1-0; Germany beat Nigeria 1-0 and Norway beat New Zealand 1-0.

Weightlifting

Chen Xiexia, last year’s world champion, dominated Saturday’s competition from start to finish, lifting 210 pounds in the snatch and 258 in the clean and jerk.

By winning the second event of the games, she earned the first medal of any shade for the host country.

Turkey’s Sibel Ozkan won the silver medal, while Chen Wei-Ling of Taiwan finished third. The 2004 Olympic champion, Nurcan Taylan of Turkey, was eliminated after three failed attempts in the snatch.

Cycling

Samuel Sanchez of Spain emerged from a sprint to the finish in the shadow of the Great Wall to win the men’s road race, a trek that covered 152 miles in hazy air.

Italy’s Davide Rebellin earned silver on his 37th birthday, while Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara took the bronze. Levi Leipheimer was the top U.S. finisher, placing 11th.

Sanchez won in 6 hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds, conquering a route that went past Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and other landmarks in Beijing, then outside the city for seven punishing laps of a hilly loop course between two points on the Great Wall.

Other sports

Romania’s Alina Dumitru won the women’s 106-pound judo gold medal, throwing Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy to the mat after stunning Japan’s seven-time world champion Ryoko Tani in the semifinals, and South Korea’s Choi Min-ho, the bronze medalist in 2004, took gold in the men’s 132-pound final.

South Korea’s Park Sung-hyun, the defending Olympic women’s archery champion, tied the Olympic record in the first day of competition.

American sailor Zach Railey was second in an Olympic Finn race, first in a series of 11 that will determine the medals.

American middleweight boxer Shawn Estrada beat Ezequiel Maderna of Argentina.

A Samoan light heavyweight boxer was knocked out, went unconscious, then left the ring in a stretcher and went to a hospital for evaluation. The ringside doctor expects Farani Tavui to be fine.

Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, who will become the No. 1 tennis player in the world Monday, said a sore right calf may knock her out of the Olympics. She’s supposed to play Sunday against Zimbabwe’s Cara Black.

Becky Holder rode her and her husband Tom’s Courageous Comet to fourth place after the first half of equestrian’s dressage phase of the eventing competition.

South Korea, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, and Russia, the 2007 world champion, tied in the day’s highest-profile women’s handball matchup.

Greek sprinter Tassos Gousis was excluded from the Olympics a few days before the games after failing a doping test in his home country. The Greek national Olympic committee said the 200-meter runner tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone on Monday. He has been sent home from a pregames training camp in Japan after being informed of the result.

The Chinese gymnast age issue is settled. They’re old enough, despite documents and media reports saying three athletes are as young as 14, two years less than rules allow. Chinese officials have insisted the girls are all of eligible age and have given International Gymnastics Federation and IOC passports to back that up.