Handball, Swimming Odds for Olympics Day 4

Michael Phelps continues to dominate the action in the pool at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Swimming specials
Phelps remains on track to win eight gold medals. After being a part of the American team that won the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in a stunning come-from-behind victory over the French on day 3, the swimming sensation has now shortened to a likely 4/7 to win eight gold medals at Beijing with bookmaker Ladbrokes, against 5/4 to fall short of the mark.

The United States is also considered a possibility to win the four main relay races - the men's and women's 100m and 400m freestyles - with their odds of quadruple gold shortening to 10/1.

Team sport: Handball
Day four (Tuesday) presents some key match ups in the men's and women's handball tournaments. While some matches are simply not worth betting on (France is an incredible 1/500 favorite to beat hosts China in the men's tournament on Tuesday), other games, such as the men's contest between Spain (4/6) and Poland (7/5), will help separate the medal contenders from the also-rans.

Handball, also known as European handball, was first introduced to the Summer Olympics at Berlin in 1936, apparently because of a request by the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who was a fan of the sport. After such murky beginnings, the sport disappeared from Olympic competition before re-emerging in 1972, again in Germany (Munich).

Handball has been traditionally dominated by the European nations, and 2008 is expected to be no different. France is 2/1 favorite in the men's, ahead of Germany 7/2, Croatia 4/1 and Denmark 6/1.

Not every bookmaker is offering odds on the women's event, but UK bookmaker Betfair is allowing online bets, with Russia and Norway the two run-away favorites.

Croatia beat Germany in the men's final at Athens in 2004, while Denmark defeated South Korea in the women's gold medal play-off.