grecowrestler13

I'm tired of hearing about how Michael Phelps is the greatest of all time and i just hearing about. It's so annoying. I mean the guy is probaly going to be forgotten i like a month. He's definetly "one" of the greatest, but not the greatest. One person that i would say is the greatest would be Aleksandr Karelin. This guy is a 3x Olympic champion 1x Olympic silver medalist, 9x world champion, and like a 8x European champion. You're probably thinking this guy has only got 3 gold medals and phelps has got like 15 golds. But Phelps is able to compete in like 8-10 different events and Karelin can compete in only one. If Phelps loses one event he can still have a chance to win gold in another, but if Karelin lost, the chances of him being eliminated are great and has to wait another 4 years just to win one medal. Also, it took Karelin like 13 years to win 3 golds and that unwanted silver, but it took just 8 years for phelps to win 15 gold and only four to win 8. 5x more than Karelin. So thats that. But what do u think?

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JensenS

What relevance do Karelin's World and European medals have when it comes to the argument of who the best Olympian ever is?

Pimach

Phelps is not the greatest Olympian of all time.

rustyshackleford

None, of course, Jensen. And to the original point, yes Phelps could have lost races and still won many golds, but he didn't! He went 8 for 8 this year, and 6 for 8 with 2 bronzes four years ago. I completely agree that it should be taken into account that swimming is the only sport where it is possible to win so many, but 6 for 8 and 8 for 8 in consecutive games is mind numbing. It also makes his ratio of golds to events competed in com in at .875 for those two years (excluding the year he was 15 and competed, which cannot be held against him.) Karelin's percentage is "only" .75 in comparison. All of that, and Phelps is coming back for London. None of this is to knock Karelin, but Phelps deserves the hype he is getting. Also, the "fact" that he will be forgotten soon is irrelevant. If it weren't Karelin could never be in the discussion, because no one outside of wrestling fans know (or have ever known) who he is.

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JensenS

I'd have to sit and think right now as to who the best ever is.

If it isn't Phelps he still certainly has a compelling argument, he's #1 in all time Gold Medals and is #2 in all time Medals overall.

If he comes back in London and pushes his Gold Medal total to say 20 he'd have the greatest ever title definitively.

Pimach

So based upon the argument that Phelps is the Greatest Olympian of all time for winning 8 gold medals, does that mean that Mark Spitz was the greatest prior to these Games? I mean the dude did win 7 golds and they were all WR, not to mention he did it with a mustache!!!

grecowrestler13

Mark also did it with a crazy head of hair. And traditional bathing shorts you can buy at wal-mart today for 10 bycks.

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p-jersey

Phelps is incredible.

I just think its hard to compare sports where you can only win one vs a sport where you can win multiple. Its unfair for an athlete to be penalized in this debate when they can only win one despite dominating that sport. I think Phelps should be compared to athletes in similar type sports ie track and field, swimming, gymastics etc etc.

Regardless of medals if you just talk about pure dominance there are quite a few athletes who can were ridiculously dominant this olympics. The russian greco wrestlers who did not allow a single point, Usain Bolt blowing away the field and the world record without even trying the last 15 meters, and several of the US teams so far winning in dominant fashion.

grecowrestler13

What Usain Bolt did at the last 15 meters of his race was by far the stupidest thing i have seen this olympics. If he didn't do that, his actual time they say would be 9.59 secs and not 9.69

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ISU2008

He already had the world record, he only came to the Olympics to win gold.

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