London Olympics: General Discussion Thread

[vaisforlovers]

Change my vote. Carl Lewis all day! 100,200 AND long jump? Unprecedented, not even attempted to be duplicated.

Plus swimmings a bunch of rich white kids. Doesnt have the best athletes on Earth imo. Running and jumping do.

[ODH]

I'm not solely basing it upon medal count, but in my mind medal count has to play a part just as a truly objective criteria. If we discount hardware entirely then we're just arguing on feelings.

I'm basing the argument on longevity having done this now for three Olympic cycles, and the fact that in doing this he's been forced to excel over multiple distances in multiple strokes against guys who aren't doing the volume that he's doing and against guys who are able to specialize in a single event distance or stroke.

...

So I don't see how judging medal count between sports is objective whenthey don't hav ethe same number of medals available. Just to get silly another objective criteria is speed. Usain Bolt is clearly faster than Phelps if you objectively look at their 100m times!

I also just looked at his medal count and he has won individual medals in only Freestyle and Butterfly at 100m and 200m and he has also won the 400m IM. So he has won two stroke in two distances, plus the IM. Super impressive accomplishments, but in the same vein as Carl Lewis who won both in sprinting and long jumping and not as great as Heiden who won from sprints and long distance races.


>>To completely contradict myself I will take Carl Lewis off my list of the greatest Olympians...he never had a great personal performance at the Olympics. He was usually the world's best going in and he met expectations but never had inspiring performances. one year he passed on his final long jump although he did not need it to win Gold, people were expecting him to try for the World Record on his last attempt and he simply passed.

So to replace him I can add Steve Redgrave from Great Britain who won Gold in five straight Olympics in Rowing. i will confess that I never heard of him before this year's opening ceremonies.

[arm-spin]

He had a great Olympic games and was unscored on, but watch his Gold Medal match and then watch Gaber's.
I have heard that the oft repeated story that Gable was first/only Olympic wrestler to be unscored on is untrue.

Karelin went unscored on 2x I think. Albiev didn't give up a point when he won in 2008; he had a Gaber like preformance but was helped by the reverse lift rules at the time.

Not sure about freestyle, I know Quintana gave up 1 the year he won. The same year Gable won, Ivan Yarygin pinned all his opponents, which is more impressive IMO.

Other great preformances- young Saitiev beat Park, Leipold and Monday (3 world/olympic champs) in one bracket to win. Not one of the most dominant, but maybe one of the most impressive mentally is Daniel Igali winning 3 OT matches in a row to make the finals.

[vaisforlovers]

So I don't see how judging medal count between sports is objective whenthey don't hav ethe same number of medals available. Just to get silly another objective criteria is speed. Usain Bolt is clearly faster than Phelps if you objectively look at their 100m times!

I also just looked at his medal count and he has won individual medals in only Freestyle and Butterfly at 100m and 200m and he has also won the 400m IM. So he has won two stroke in two distances, plus the IM. Super impressive accomplishments, but in the same vein as Carl Lewis who won both in sprinting and long jumping and not as great as Heiden who won from sprints and long distance races.


>>To completely contradict myself I will take Carl Lewis off my list of the greatest Olympians...he never had a great personal performance at the Olympics. He was usually the world's best going in and he met expectations but never had inspiring performances. one year he passed on his final long jump although he did not need it to win Gold, people were expecting him to try for the World Record on his last attempt and he simply passed.

So to replace him I can add Steve Redgrave from Great Britain who won Gold in five straight Olympics in Rowing. i will confess that I never heard of him before this year's opening ceremonies.

He was there to win gold, and did so. As we mentioned Carl was in many different events. What if he pulled a hamstring attempting the last, unnecessary jump and wasnt able to run?

[ODH]

He was there to win gold, and did so. As we mentioned Carl was in many different events. What if he pulled a hamstring attempting the last, unnecessary jump and wasnt able to run?

Agreed it was the smart way to try and win Gold but it was not a transcendent performance. I am pretty sure he never set a World Record or Olympic Record at the Olympics either. If we are talking greatest ever Olympian he would have to have hi best performances at the Olympics. My example of AL Oerter set an Olympic record in each of his four Gold Medal wins and three times they were World Records.

[vaisforlovers]

Oerter was limited to one event. He didnt even do another throw? Cmon. Thats the greatest athlete?

[vaisforlovers]

Longevity is over rated, btw.

[ban basketball]

I have a friend here locally who write the most hilarious one line posts on his facebook page.

His most recent one said that Olympic rules should be changed to require that all teams/sports have at least one member who knows nothing about the sport that he/she is participating in! I've often lobbied for Drunk Boxing, and the post-buffet 2 mile race myself.

That's my idea of a good Olympics.

[tpay]

Change my vote. Carl Lewis all day! 100,200 AND long jump? Unprecedented, not even attempted to be duplicated.

Plus swimmings a bunch of rich white kids. Doesnt have the best athletes on Earth imo. Running and jumping do.

Ever hear of Jese Owens....did the 100, 200, Long Jump & 4 x 100 relay before Lewis did, in Berlin 1936.