Swimmers and Gymnasts Were Best Bets

If you were looking to bet on Americans in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, your best bets were to lay your money on swimming or gymnastics. In all, five athletes will come back to the United States with at least four medals. Here are the Americans with the most jewelry around their necks.

Michael Phelps, Swimming: 8 Gold; 8 Total

Natalie Coughlin, Swimming: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze; 6 Total

Nastia Liukin, Gymnastics: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze; 5 Total

Ryan Lochte, Swimming: 2 Gold, 2 Bronze; 4 Total

Shaun Johnson, Gymnastics: 1 Gold, 3 Silver; 4 Total

Congrats to the American medal winners who won medals, and more importantly, to the bettors who won cash on these home grown athletes. Lemmy is proud.

Phelps' Bettors Take Home Gold

Michael Phelps dominated the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, topping Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in one Olympiad with eight of his own. While Phelps isn't one to gloat, those who bet on him are surely doing victory laps.

He's the hero of the Beijing Olympics -- but Michael Phelps has become the bane of bookmakers. Gamblers have joined Phelps's winning streak with online betting sites reporting a spike in money riding on the U.S. swimmer and higher interest overall from gamblers in the Games. Phelps has been the favourite in all of his races in the Aug. 8-24 Games on various online betting sites, with odds for his victories down to about 5/2 on -- paying out about $40 on a $100 bet.

As it turned out, betting on his freestyle was free money.