It’s an argument that nobody can win. Who is the greatest Olympian? Winner of the decathlon, marathon? 22 medals in the pool?
Well, i’m the farthest from an Olympian so you are more than welcome to discredit my opinion. But here it is:
swimming: it is an extremely technical skill that not everybody has the luxury of being exposed to. It’s not the most natural of sports. Plus, there are wayyyyyyyyy too many medal events in swimming. If you’re good at one, there’s a good chance you are capable of winning in the million other swimming events. So i’m sorry Phelps, you are not the greatest Olympian.
the greatest Olympians can only come from running events. The most primitive of skills. raw. Who can run faster than who?
I give a huge nod to Jesse Owens. He ran for gold in the most evil of landscapes in Berlin. I wasn’t around then but it is one of the most amazing feats I can imagine.
But I don’t have to imagine what happened today. I saw Usain Bolt defeat the fastest field in the history of the world in the 100m….to me the paramount event of the olypmics. There is nothing more amazing than imagining what it takes to prepare and win an event that is over in less than 10 second. It blows my mind. There will never be any argument that can convince me that the winner of the 100 m is not the greatest Olympian of that yr. And to win it 2 times in a row in record setting fashion with the greatest field ever assembled, well, sorry Phelps.
And the icing: Bolt will probably win the 200m . that is staggering. The dynamics between both events is huge. I don’t even know how to compare it to what Phelps has to compete in.
I can drone on for hrs.. But plain and simple. Running as fast as you can is second to none. I was blessed to see, in my lifetime, an unbelievable display of sheer athleticism tonight.