Is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever? What's your opinion?

Question

I think he is! 8 gold medals in 1 olympics! WOW!

Answer 1

i think he's the most accomplished olympian so far. i'm more impressed about breaking the world record 7 times.  

Answer 2

He's far and away the best Olympian ever, his world records and medals speak for themselves, no need for opinion.

I wonder how many people that think swimming is an easy sport to win medals at have won a gold metal in the Olympics themselves??? LOL

Answer 3

I think he is the greatest also, maybe because I have been swept up in Phelps mania. But he has won more golds than any other one athlete, and has won more golds in one Olympiad than anyone else. That in my mind makes him the greatest Olympian ever.  

Answer 4

The greatest Olympian is the person who competes against poor, or no training facilities and no financial backing, and still produces the qualifying standard to be there.

Whether they finish first or last, let us applaud their desire, defiance and dedication, and be inspired by them.

Answer 5

he is certainly one of the greats but is not, in my opinion,'the greatest'.

I don't think a term like 'the greatest' is something that can be applied to any individual in the olympics, with its huge diversity of disciplines which vary so considerably, require such different techniques and which vary so much in medal opportunities...

To single out one athlete in one discipline and apply the term 'the greatest' to him is disrespectful to the many other great olympians, past, present and future.

Answer 6

No. Swimming is an absurdly easy sport to win multiple medals in. There are many other swimmers who have medalled in several events. In most sports this is impossible to even attempt, even in athletics which has the most medals of them all, all the events are so different that nobody can compete in more than 4 or 5 of them. The greatest success ever at that was Carl Lewis, in sprints and jumps, four events. Marion Jones medalled in 5 sprints/jumps but as a doping-banned athlete she doesn't count.

Swimming also is a far younger sport than athletics, and the only record in swimming older than 7 years old was broken in these olympics. There is still so much room for improvement in swimming that breaking world records happens every olympics in many events. In fact, according to the wikipedia every swimming record was set after the year 2000, while in athletics about half the records were set in the 1990's or before.

So the answer who said he dominates only swimming, that's the gist of it. That's good for swimming, but multiple medals and world records in that sport mean nothing compared to multiples and records in athletics.

Because he was the only one to successfully pull off 4 or more golds in athletics, Carl Lewis would be the greatest Olympian ever. Also because he was such a great sportsman, and such a good contrast to dopers like Ben Johnson and the huge wave of American roid users that ruined the '90's. Except for Jesse Owens who also got 4 gold, but it was much easier in Owens's day.

Second, was John Ngugi the 1988 5000 champion because he won against people who could outkick him by running insanely fast till he had a 50-meter lead, then held it till the end. Nearly impossible in the Olympic 5000.

Answer 7

Not the greatest Olympian ever. He's the gratest dope olympian ever  

Answer 8

For anyone to call Phelps the greatest olympian of all time simply denigrates the achievements of a lot of other athletes.

Sure, Phelps has 8 golds but Mark Spitz's set a benchmark with 7 golds 36 years ago. The suggestion here of course is that Spitz's achievements are now somehow less impressive than they were.

How about Carl Lewis. He won 9 golds over the course of 4 olympics. That's is quite extraordinary longevity for such high power events.

Sir Steve Redgrave won his first gold in 1984 and won his last in 2000. To compete at such a high level in an endurance sport for so long is very impressive.

Bob Mathias and Daley Thompson are currently the only 2 people to have successfully defended an olympic decathlon title.

I expect the list goes on.

So, while I don't agree that Phelps is the greatest olympian of all time I certainly think he keeps good company in the list of the all time greats.

Answer 9

Nope! He just the best smiwwer, he just aims for the medals in swimming.

Answer 10

The best olympian ever was that weightlifter who threw his bronze medal down and had a tantrum.  That medal would get a ton of money on ebay.

Answer 11

no hes the best swimmer but nt the best olympian

Answer 12

Carl Lewis - he admitted to the use of cocaine during his running career...

Answer 13

i think phelps is too but in the main page of yahoo they posted that he wasnt.