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Just saw it here on the west coast. Phelps is incredible and it's been a blast watching him make history.
What's most stunning about the end of this is that it's not as if Phelps just bandwagoned his way to #8 -- his turn and the second 50 of his fly leg were absolutely incredible and gave Lezak enough breathing room to hold off Sullivan's charge.
His ulative results over the last week might be the most amazing athletic achievement I've ever seen.
Just saw it here on the west coast. Phelps is incredible and it's been a blast watching him make history.
Save the Sports Illustrated you get in the mail with Phelp's 8 medals on his chest.
You will probobly never see it broken.
I agree 1000%.
This has easily been the most fun Olympics I've ever seen.
Its really a cool set of sports. Like today, I've never seen water polo before, and it was actually kinda cool
Phelps is phenomenal but there is an excessive amount of nut-kissing going on. The media should just let him breathe for 2 minutes.
He's been on 2 covers already in the last few weeks. I guess the SI Cover jinx didn't apply to him.
What a performance.
You didn't execute the explanation well but you do have a point. While I think Phelps deserves major, major props, I do think it's unfair to automatically label him as the best Olympian ever.
What other sport is it even possible to get eight gold medals? Swimming is unique in that it has so many races and that it is almost totally non-contact. It's exhausting for sure but there's no pounding of joints or contact with opposing players.
Seriously, is there even another sport that one could conceivably win eight golds? Most every sport it is mathematically impossible to even compete in eight events. Perhaps there is a combination of track and field events that would be possible but I'm not sure.
Phelps is no doubt the best swimmer of all-time but if other athletes don't even have a chance to accomplish what he accomplish, I don't see how it is fair to say what Phelps did was the most impressive feat.
Yeah, but the cover with him with 8 will be a collectors item. I can't wait.
It will be nice to have. This is the first time in a long time that I'm glad I subscribe to it when it's not basketball season.
Do you have a license for that??????
Track and Men's Gymnastics.
Swimming can pound your joints...Swimming is unique in that it has so many races and that it is almost totally non-contact. It's exhausting for sure but there's no pounding of joints or contact with opposing players.
It's possible to win like 13 medals just in the running events...you throw in the pole vault and high jump and I think you can win about 17 medals.Seriously, is there even another sport that one could conceivably win eight golds? Most every sport it is mathematically impossible to even compete in eight events. Perhaps there is a combination of track and field events that would be possible but I'm not sure.
Phelps is no doubt the best swimmer of all-time but if other athletes don't even have a chance to accomplish what he accomplish, I don't see how it is fair to say what Phelps did was the most impressive feat.
Well then who is the greatest athlete? Really the only way to judge them is by the way they dominated their peers and events, historical and contemporary. And Phelps is pretty much in a class by himself in that dominating multiple events category, although truthfully I don't think he was a dominant as Mark Spitz was...none of Mark Spitz' races were even close.
But as far as athletes from different sports...
Definitely an apples and oranges thing...
For instance you can say Jordan would have won every compe ion if they had them...but would he have won 8 medals as a swimmer? Probably not.
Phelps has more gold medals than anyone, career and single Olympics...I guess that's the primary judge of an Olympian...if there's a better way to judge I'd like to see it.
Personally I think for a guy to be considered the greatest athlete ever, he'd have to be dominant in multiple types of sports...not just one.
For instance...Bo Jackson or Deon Sanders.
If that is the judge...then Jim Thorpe is beyond all doubt the greatest athlete in history.
He was a professional:
Football player
Basketball player
Baseball player
And he was a multiple Olympic Gold Medalist, in the Decathlon, and the Pentathlon....track compe ions featuring every form of track event.
No one else comes close to this guy...he is the greatest athlete IMO.
Out of recent times, maybe Dave Winfield, who was drafted by an NBA team, NFL team and a MLB team...he only played baseball but still...being drafted in 3 sports is pretty amazing.
If you translate this to the Olympics...
I'd say the greatest Olympian was someone who won both the Summer and Winter Olympics...or at the least entirely different fields of compe ion in the Winter or Summer...and there aren't any as far as I know.
But there are some that have medaled in Summer and Winter Olympics...
Only one athlete in history has won Gold medals in the Summer and Winter Olympics:
Eddie Eagan, USA–Light Heavyweight Boxing gold (1920) and Four-man Bobsled gold (1932).
Only 3 other athletes have won medals in both the Winter and Summer Olympics:
Jacob Tullin Thams, Norway–Ski Jumping gold (1924) and 8-meter Yachting silver (1936).
Christa Luding-Rothenburger, East Germany–Speed Skating gold at 500 meters (1984) and 1,000m (1988), silver at 500m (1988) and bronze at 500m (1992) and Match Sprint Cycling silver (1988). Luding-Rothenburger is the only athlete to ever win medals in both Winter and Summer Games in the same year.
Clara Hughes, Canada—Individual Road Race Cycling bronze and Individual Time Trial Cycling bronze (1996) and 5,000 m Speed Skating bronze (2002).
Is what they did greater than what Phelps did? Arguably...but they probably wouldn't have won 8 medals as swimmers either.
Last edited by whottt; 08-17-2008 at 06:36 PM.
Did Spitz swim the same type of program Phelps swam?
Look at the footage of Phelps hometown- so many people cheering him on.
It makes me want to cry- so awesome.
They will probably have to shut down Dulles or whatever airport he will return to Baltimore in. After Athens he had a street named after him. Now they might just rename a section of Baltimore for him. I'm hearing they have this huge parade set up for him. I'm sure he will probably flip the coin at the first Ravens game being as though he is a huge Ravens fan.
I don't know the answer to that, but if it matters, Spitz only swam 2 strokes, the free and the fly, Phelps swam all 4.
do we really need 17 swimming events?
Yeah he was all "I can't wait to get back home and just watch football"
I could see where hes coming from, being over there for as long as he has has got to have been painfull.
Spitz's races in '72:
100 m freestyle [00:51:22]
200 m freestyle [01:52:78]
100 m butterfly [00:54:27]
200 m butterfly [02:00:70]
4 x 100 m freestyle relay [03:26:42]
4 x 200 m freestyle relay [07:35:78]
4 x 100 m medley relay [03:48:16]
I don't know how many actual swims he did. (Phelps did 17 this week).
Yeah he was all "I can't wait to get back home and just watch football"
I could see where hes coming from, being over there for as long as he has has got to have been painfull.
Too bad we probably are gonna suck this year.....
Thanks for that research Duncan228. 17 counting the qualifying swims right?
It looks like Spitz was also the fastest swimmer in the world back then as well. Pretty impressive. Not sure how Phelps would fair in the 100m freestyle.
All 7 of Spitz's Gold Medals were World Records in '72.
Only if we could have a time machine two see these to square off against each other in their prime.
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