Phelps the greatest ever? - Maybe
Now that Michael Phelps has his eight gold medals in these Olympics, we have about another week to yap about whether he's the greatest athlete ever, was this the greatest athletic feat or whether he's just the greatest Olympian.
Greatest athlete is too broad because we can spend all day arguing about whether golfers, race car drivers or baseball players are 'athletes.' I prefer to think in terms of athletic accomplishments.
ESPN's Jemele Hill makes the case that Phelps' feat is the best ever (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/080816) but she mixes and matches things by comparing Michael Jordan's six NBA championships (which is a career achievement) and Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak (which obviously played out over a much longer period). Her argument is that Phelps endured more in these eight days than anyone.
Phelps' run is high on the list of athletic achievements. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point NBA game 46 years ago still blows me away, and the closest anyone has come was Kobe Bryant's 81 - still 19 points (a good number for an entire game) short. Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis winning winning the 100, 200, long jump and 400-relay in the same Olympics is awesome.
Greatest athlete is too broad because we can spend all day arguing about whether golfers, race car drivers or baseball players are 'athletes.' I prefer to think in terms of athletic accomplishments.
ESPN's Jemele Hill makes the case that Phelps' feat is the best ever (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/080816) but she mixes and matches things by comparing Michael Jordan's six NBA championships (which is a career achievement) and Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak (which obviously played out over a much longer period). Her argument is that Phelps endured more in these eight days than anyone.
Phelps' run is high on the list of athletic achievements. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point NBA game 46 years ago still blows me away, and the closest anyone has come was Kobe Bryant's 81 - still 19 points (a good number for an entire game) short. Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis winning winning the 100, 200, long jump and 400-relay in the same Olympics is awesome.
posted by Nate Tidwell at 3:59 PM
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