I'm so sick of hearing that phrase.
Its such bullshit. Number of medals does not necessarilly indicate magnitude of greatness!
You need the *opportunity* to compete for those medals too!
How many sports allow you to compete in so many events in the Olympics?
How many basketball medals are there? Volleyball? Boxing (per weightclass)? Wrestling?
i always thought the Decathlon Gold Medal winner was always considered the world's greatest athlete?
The world's greatest athlete needs to be great at like 3 different sports at the least. Deion Sanders was pretty good in baseball and great in football but he is the only one that ever came close to achieving that. Jordan sucked in baseball so he doesn't count.
Michael Phelps can't hold Carl Lewis' Jock.
First of all there are like 1,000 swimming events so we can't base it on medal count.
Second, I'd like to see Phelps dominate 4 olympics before he's talked about better than Carl lewis.
oohah
it's all relative... i'm pretty sure Carl Lewis wouldn't get past the 10 meter mark before Phelps finished an entire length of the pool.
You gotta give Phelps some credit though. He's just miles better than anything we've ever seen.
Posted by TMS:
it's all relative... i'm pretty sure Carl Lewis wouldn't get past the 10 meter mark before Phelps finished an entire length of the pool.
You really think Phelps can swim 50 meters faster than Lewis could run 10 meters? I'm pretty sure we can disprove this by the actual numbers.
oohah
[Edited by - oohah on 07-11-2008 10:19 PM]
Posted by oohah:
Posted by TMS:
it's all relative... i'm pretty sure Carl Lewis wouldn't get past the 10 meter mark before Phelps finished an entire length of the pool.
You really think Phelps can swim 50 meters faster than Lewis could run 10 meters? I'm pretty sure we can disprove this by the actual numbers.
oohah
[Edited by - oohah on 07-11-2008 10:19 PM]
what? i said i think Phelps can probably swim 50 meters faster than Lewis can
swim 10... the point being both these guys were elite at what they do... u can't say 1's a better athlete than the other based on the fact that Phelps can't hold a candle to Lewis on the track... same w/Lewis, he'd probably drown before he finished 200 meters.
[Edited by - TMS on 11-07-2008 7:40 PM]
I think to be great athlet must overcome obstacles of live like this man:
Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov (Russian: Владимир Валерьевич Сальников; born May 21, 1960) is a Russian former swimmer who competed for the USSR and set 12 world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1,500-meter freestyle. Nicknamed a "monster in the waves", he was the first man to swim under fifteen minutes in the 1500-meter freestyle. He was named the Male World Swimmer of the Year in 1982 by Swimming World magazine.
[edit] Biography
Born in Leningrad, Salnikov was the son of a sea captain. When he was seven years old, his mother took him to a swimming pool to join a swimming team. One year later he began to train regularly under the lead of coach. Salnikov trained at Zenit and later at the Armed Forces sports society.
Salnikov made his debut in the Olympic games in 1976 in Montreal, at the age of 16. He broke the European record in the 1,500-meter race freestyle, but finished fifth.
His long sequence of international victories began at the 1977 European Championship where he won the gold medal in his favourite race, the 1,500 m freestyle.
In the 1978 World Championship in Berlin, Salnikov won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500-meter freestyle. He established a new world record in the 400 meters. One year later he set another world record, this time in the 800-meter freestyle, becoming the first man to complete the distance in less than eight minutes.
The USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, but Salnikov demonstrated that he was far superior to everybody stunning the world as he won the gold medal in the 1500 finishing in 14:58.27, first man to swim the distance under 15 minutes. He won two more gold medals in the 4x200 relay and in the 400 m, both freestyle.
In the early 1980s Salinikov was the absolute ruler of the freestyle races on the longer distances: in 1982 he retained his world titles, and one year later, at the European Championship, he set a new world record in the 1,500 m with the time of 14:54.76: the record lasted until 1991, when it was beaten by the German Jörg Hoffmann.
The USSR boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics, and when Salnikov went back to Seoul in 1988, at the age of 28, he was considered too old. He had set a world record in 1986 in the 800 m, but two years later he was considered in decline. Salnikov, however, stunned the world winning the 1,500 meters race, with a spectacular recovery. For this feat, when he entered the village's restaurant that night he received a standing ovation from his peers.
Salnikov's titles also include four World Championship gold medals, four European Championship gold medals and one European Championship silver medal.
Posted by TMS:
Posted by oohah:
Posted by TMS:
it's all relative... i'm pretty sure Carl Lewis wouldn't get past the 10 meter mark before Phelps finished an entire length of the pool.
You really think Phelps can swim 50 meters faster than Lewis could run 10 meters? I'm pretty sure we can disprove this by the actual numbers.
oohah
[Edited by - oohah on 07-11-2008 10:19 PM]
what? i said i think Phelps can probably swim 50 meters faster than Lewis can swim 10... the point being both these guys were elite at what they do... u can't say 1's a better athlete than the other based on the fact that Phelps can't hold a candle to Lewis on the track... same w/Lewis, he'd probably drown before he finished 200 meters.
[Edited by - TMS on 11-07-2008 7:40 PM]
I see.
Well, I'm not a swimming guy, but like I said, when Phelps dominates 4 Olympics I'll start thinking about him as the greatest Olympian.
oohah
How many athletes can swim like he do? No one in the world.
Posted by oohah:
Posted by TMS:
Posted by oohah:
Posted by TMS:
it's all relative... i'm pretty sure Carl Lewis wouldn't get past the 10 meter mark before Phelps finished an entire length of the pool.
You really think Phelps can swim 50 meters faster than Lewis could run 10 meters? I'm pretty sure we can disprove this by the actual numbers.
oohah
[Edited by - oohah on 07-11-2008 10:19 PM]
what? i said i think Phelps can probably swim 50 meters faster than Lewis can swim 10... the point being both these guys were elite at what they do... u can't say 1's a better athlete than the other based on the fact that Phelps can't hold a candle to Lewis on the track... same w/Lewis, he'd probably drown before he finished 200 meters.
[Edited by - TMS on 11-07-2008 7:40 PM]
I see.
Well, I'm not a swimming guy, but like I said, when Phelps dominates 4 Olympics I'll start thinking about him as the greatest Olympian.
oohah
he's already dominated 2 & will likely dominate the next one in 4 years... dunno if he'll have the longevity to do it for a 4th tho.
I don't believe in the phrase myself. There have been many great athletes and how can anyone judge todays athletes anymore, now that we have steroids in the system. It's all bullshit now days. Superficial, nothing natural about them.
