That is how NBC is portraying him based on the highest gold medal and medal count. Is it fair to use this metric since swimming has far too many opportunities for a swimmer to get a medal?
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
But still to get 21 Gold Medals is not an easy thing
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
No questtion. He has 23 medals total I think.
But he participates in about 5 individual events and 4 relays - or something close.. and the relays mostly are a joke. US team so strong they win most of relays.
Now take track. A 100m sprinter Max participates in 2 individual events 100&200m. And 4×100 relay. Total 3 events. And relays far more competitive. So chance of 2.5 golds. That is a factor of close to 4 to 1 that a swimmer has chance to medal vs sprinter in Track.
So 23 medals in swimming equivalenr to 5.8 medals in track.
Carl Lewis has 6 to 8 medals out of which 5 gold. And he missed out as 19 yr old the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to boycott.
And if we consider that ratio of folks with access to ground for running to those with access to pool - it is about 50. So the competition for track 50 times higher.
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
I wonder who is going to break his record!
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
Southie uncle...you went all mathematics on this one!!!!!
the last one who had it..the record was 17 medals....what was this person's sport?
P.S. something is wrong with your key board....have been noticing the past couple of days you are adding extra letters in some words :D
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
Southie uncle...you went all mathematics on this one!!!!!
the last one who had it..the record was 17 medals....what was this person's sport?
P.S. something is wrong with your key board....have been noticing the past couple of days you are adding extra letters in some words :D
Sorry about that - re math and keyboard. I don't know who has 17 medals. Odds are it must be a gymnast or swimmer. Since both those events give chance for multiple medals.
Phelps is the best.Olympic swimmer. But comparing a swimmer with 23 medals to a Track sprinter with 7 medals is apples to oranges comparison.
As for keyboard - last z3 months kindle fire - not very good at using stupid electronic keyboard.
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
@ Keyboard
I agree..it is comparing apples to oranges
Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
Sorry about that - re math and keyboard. I don’t know who has 17 medals. Odds are it must be a gymnast or swimmer. Since both those events give chance for multiple medals.
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Re: Michael Phelps best olympian of all time
I don't think he's the greatest. He is the most successful. It's unfair to base it solely on the number of medals because, as Southie uncle mentioned, Phelps has had more chances than anyone else. There have been other feats that are more impressive, IMO, such as Jesse Owens dominating the '36 Olympics, or Karl Lewis succeeding in both sprints and long jump. Compared to that, Phelps is a bit of a "one trick pony". Also, I hate how they hype up the fact that the swimming records have been broken recently, year over year in fact, but don't mention that it's not really because of the swimmers being better, but more so because the swimmers are using better equipment.
At the end of the day, I think "greatest" is subjective and up for debate. Most successful, no doubt about that.