If not for Phelps, that achievement might have dominated more conversations here along with Natalie Coughlin's six medals in six events (Coughlin swam backstroke on the first leg of the medley relay for the United States on Sunday).
ROME — With a combination of savvy media domination, old-fashioned party politics and a salesman's preternatural charm, Silvio Berlusconi has dominated Italy more than anyone since Mussolini.
There is, first, the impending retirement (or at least aging) of the men's biggest stars, that marvellous trifecta of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic that has dominated for more than a decade.
The fact that a slow love song came out top countered the main musical trend in Serbia, where "turbo-folk" - an ear-splitting melange of Balkan rhythms, electronic pounding, and stridently nationalist lyrics - has dominated for more than a decade.
It is about one simple question: "With him or without him?"The man in question is Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, who has dominated politics more than anybody since Janos Kadar, who led the country for 32 years before the collapse of communism.
This suggests that the longer a percept has dominated, the more persistent a bias it leaves.
For over thirty years, in more than a hundred films, Gérard Depardieu has dominated French movies more thoroughly than any actor has ever dominated a nation's cinema.
But he has dominated his Government more than any predecessor since Churchill.
That was before Madonna, who has dominated pop for more than 10 years.
Phelps, who has dominated swimming for more than a decade, was overshadowed by Lochte here, but he also seemed to return to form after a disappointing season last year.
