re: Greatest olympian ever

Carl Lewis in 1984' was more impressive.

gold in:
100m
200m
4x100m
long jump

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I blame ESPN for starting all this most dominant in _______ crap. It's been going on for years, drives me insane.

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this we can definitely agree on. Can't anyone just be great at what they do anymore with out all the hyperbole for fricks sake?

I don’t buy the suits argument. These suits were around in 2004. It isn’t a brand new invention, world class swimmers have been wearing these suits for over five years. And almost every sport has benefited from technological improvement.

To keep it to greatest Olympians ever, I think you have to meet two criteria: dominate your sport, and do it in multiple Olympics. So that leaves us with the following candidates:

Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Raymond Ewry, and Bjorn Daehlie.

To fill you in on the two you don’t know, Ewry dominated the jumping events in the three Olympics before World War I. He still holds the Olympic record for longest standing broad jump, mainly because the event was discontinued, but come on, that’s a fun factoid. He won 10 golds over three Olympics.

Daehlie is the greatest Winter Olympian ever, wining nine cross-country skiing golds (plus four silvers). He also won seven world titles, but that doesn’t count as far as grewtaest Olympian ever. He’s won more medals and more godls than anybody. Until Phelps. You don’t know him because he’s Norwegian.

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the olympics are a gathering of the worlds best athletes, so if you are the best of that group all time you are automatically the best ever as an athlete

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I didn't read the rest of the thread, but this is fricking awful logic.

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I don’t buy the suits argument. These suits were around in 2004.

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I read that they had new ones at the USOT, I really don't know, just going off what I heard.

They might have refined the technology, but the real jump was in 2002 or 2003 when they developed the shark suit. I'm sure the suits are always getting better, but it's not the great technological jump of a few years ago.

Phelps looks like he is un-human in some of these races. Everyone else is bunched together (swimming at World Record speed mind you), while he is just bombing out in front of everyone.

Honestly, I don’t know. I’m willing to bet this isn’t the only “fast pool” and I do distinctly remember the pool in Sydney in 2000 being designed for speed given that swimming is Australia’s national sport. But, to be fair, track technology has gotten better as well. No one is running on the same kind of track Jesse Owens did.

I would put Phelps over Spitz for the simple reason that Phelps won 8 medals in 2004, including 6 golds. He’s won 5 in these Games. Spitz won 7 and then 2. I think the ability to truly dominate two Olympiads puts Phelps ahead of Spitz.

It’s also why I keep Carl Lewis and Bjorn Daehlie in such high regard. They both dominated their sports in three different Olympiads. I’d say given that you can win more medals in swimming, if I had to rank them, I’d go:
1. Lewis
2. Daehlie
3. Phelps

But it Phelps comes back in 2012 and wins just one or two golds, I’d bump him to the top.

Well, I was trying to narrow the list, and the guys I chose simply won more medals. Not to say those others weren’t great, but look at the difference

Carl Lewis: 9 gold, 10 medals, 1984-1996
Michael Phelps: 11 gold, 13 medals, 2004-2008
Mark Spitz: 9 gold, 11 medals, 1968-1972
Raymond Ewry: 8 gold, 8 medals, 1900-1908
Bjorn Daehlie: 8 gold, 12 medals, 1992-1998
Paavo Nurmi: 9 gold, 12 medals, 1920-1928 (an oversight, he should have been on my list)
Lasse Viren: 4 gold, 4 medals, 1972-1976
Haile Gebrselassie: 2 gold, 2 medals, 1996-2000
Emile Zatopek: 4 gold, 5 medals, 1948-1952
Vasily Alekseyev: 2 gold, 2 medals, 1972-1976

You do like the distance runners, don’t you?

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You do like the distance runners, don’t you?

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I do think its tougher to win a 5000/ 10000 double or an 800/ 1500 (I should have included Peter Snell) than to win 4 or 5 golds in swimming. What Phelps is doing is incredible but there is a reason the people with the most golds in one Olympics are swimmers.