Michael Phelps has a new accolade.

“He is the icon of the games,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said yesterday.

The American swimmer has won five gold medals, setting five world records in the process, so far at the Beijing Olympics. He picked up his 10th and 11th career gold medals yesterday to become the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Phelps is on course to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics.

“The quest to have more medals than Spitz will be something very important,” Rogge told The Associated Press. “And he’s keeping the attention of the public. He is a great athlete.”

Rogge put Phelps in a select pantheon of Olympic idols.

“The Olympic Games live around superheroes,” he said. “You had Jesse Owens, you had Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis and now you have Phelps. And that’s what we need to have.”