BoiseBYU wrote:
4. Can we proclaim Michael Phelps the greatest Olympic athlete of all time? How about the greatest athlete period?
I hate to be the guy who makes a stand against Michael Phelps, but I think we are all a bit caught up in the hype with all the hyperbole. No one called Mark Spitz the greatest Olympian ever, and certainly no one called him the greatest athlete period. Yet, when Michael Phelps breaks his record by one medal, we are going to lavish those titles on him? Why?
First off, let me begin by addressing the lunatic idea that Phelps is the greatest athlete ever. Highly, highly dubious. Think of names like Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Michael Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Paavo Nurmi, Bo Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Thorpe, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Babe Ruth, and you want to leapfrog Phelps to the top of the list?
Let's break down what Phelps did. He won 8 gold medals in a single Olympics in the only discipline in which it would be possible. Think about it--how does a track and field star win 8 golds? They would have to run the 100, 4x100, 200, 4x200, 400, 4x400, both hurdles, and he would still need to add an even longer distance or non-running event to make 8. A wrestler would need to wrestle in four different weight classes in his first discipline, and three in the other. A male gymnast would have to win the all-around, the team title and all the individual events, while a female gymnast would not have enough events to even try. And it goes on.
And Phelps? He won in the 400 IM, 4 x 100 Free, 200 Free, 200 Fly, 4 x 200 Free, 200 IM, 100 Fly, and the 4 x 100 Medley. A great accomplishment? Absolutely, but we have to keep it in the context of the sport. It's the equivalent in track of running the 100, 4x100, 200, 4x200, the 400 track medley (100 run, 100 hurdles, 100 three-legged, and 100 backwards), the 200 track medley, the 4x 100 track medley team, and the 200 hurdles (doesn't exist). Do you see how the cross-discipline comparisons break down?
Never to be beaten? It depends on whether swimming adds more events or schedules a more favorable 4x400. Spitz didn't have to add the 400 events to break the previous record of five golds. He swam seven events as an insurance policy. Necessity dictates what needs to be done, and history teaches us that someone will do it eventually--no one thought anyone would break the Shark's seven gold, but here it happened. Someone will come and beat Phelps eventually--it's just the way things go in athletics--everyone wants to be the best, and to be the best you have to beat the best.
Now, as for the greatest Olympian ever, I think his name will be in the running, but again we have to weigh his results by his discipline. I agree he is possibly the greatest
American Olympian ever, with the greatest threats coming from Mary Lou, Carl Lewis, and Michael Johnson. Internationally, I don't think he beats out Paaavo Nurmi or Larissa Latynina's accomplishments.
Nurmi set the record of five gold medals that Spitz would later eclipse, but he did so in distance running. In 1924, he won in five events, 1500 m, 5000 m (with only 26 minutes rest between, setting world records in both), 3000 m team , and both cross country events. He won all five in four days, and would have run to defend his world record and gold in the 10,000 m, but the Finnish government withdrew him from the race in fear of the heat.
Latynina dominated her sport at all disciplines. She remains the only gymnast to medal in every individual apparatus, and holds 18 medals in a discipline that offers only 6 events per Olympics.
What I think we are seeing is a phenomenal performance, but I think Phelps is simply destined to become the next Mark Spitz. Someone whose name is only mentioned every four years. I absolutely disagree that he is the greatest athlete of all time, and I do not think he is the greatest Olympian of all-time when we consider the international athletes who our media never tells us about.
We are caught up in the Olympic spirit and hype in a year where the US doesn't have many glamor athletes, and it is human nature to overreact immediately after witnessing something. Great athlete? Yes. Greatest? Not by a long shot.
