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Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

I just saw this on the CBC website and it really bothered me. Why not put Bolt in the water and Plelps on the track and see what happens? Or better yet, put them on the rings!

There are so many excellent athletes that excel at what they do, how can you say one is the best? Gymnastics are amazing to watch; weight lifting has been crazy; triathlons look pretty damn grueling...

The only difference is that water and running sports have way more options to get metals. So, if you're really good, you clean up. Why not have 7 or 10 shooting events?

Huh, I needed that off my chest..

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

That's like asking who would win an intergalactic battle, the empire or the federation.

You can't make that comparison, they effectively don't even exist in the same universe.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

We all know it's the federation anyways. :D

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Well, of course, they're the good guys... that or you're a trekie.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood (Post 1213229)

The best way to compare athletes from different sports is to look at the overall impact they have had on their chosen field.

Is Tiger Woods better than Michael Jordan? Putting them in the other's specialty isn't the answer. MJ could probably at least give Tiger a respectable challenge on the golf course (although he would still lose), but Tiger wouldn't stand a chance against MJ on the basketball court. But that isn't what's important.

The determining factor is the impact an athlete has on their sport and how completely they dominate the competition. In that light, I would say Tiger and MJ are almost dead even. When they are at their best, there is nobody else in the sport that can touch them. When they are at their worst, the rest of the field has an even shot. That's pretty dominating.

So let's look at Phelps and Bolt. I haven't got to see much of the Olympics, so I honostly don't know that much about Bolt's abilities. But Phelps accomplished something that hasn't been done in over 35 years - he won every single event he entered. Two of them were team events, but his effort still helped his team to win. I assume Bolt also runs on the relay team. So, if Bolt wins every event he has entered, then I say he is equal to Phelps. If he doesn't, I say he is still a tremendous athlete, but may not be quite in the league of Phelps.

The same thing goes for gymnastics. All gymnasts compete on each apparatus and also have a chance to compete in the overall competition. So if they win each portion of the competition they enter, that puts them in circle of very elite athletes. If not, they are still excellent athletes, but may not have that extra little bit of natural talent that let's them dominate their sport.

Same principal can be applied to decathletes and ironmen competitors. How do they compare to others in their sport. Are they SO good that certain moves are named after them (such as Kurt Thomas in gymnastics) or competitors actually have to change the way they compete to account for them? Until MJ came along, teams never worried about a player running from half court to slam dunk a missed free throw. The first time MJ did it, everyone just stood at stared (even his own teammates), because NOBODY had ever done anything like that before. The second time he did it, teams changed their defensive alignment on free throws to block MJ's lane to the basket.

So those are factors you can look at to compare athletes from different sports.
Did they dominate the sport so completely that nobody could beat them?
Did they actually change the way the sport is played?
Did they innovate the sport by doing things nobody had ever done before?
What was their overall impact on the sport?

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

As far as Bolt, I can tell you he is crazy! 9.68 in the 100M and her let up at the end. In the 400M qualifier he just jogged next to the other person who was going full out.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Phelps is a swimmer, not an athlete. ;)

I would say the winner of the DECATHLON is the greatest athlete of the olympics. The Swimming medely is only 4 swimming strokes, whereas the Decathlete must be a sprinter, hurdler, jumper, middle distrance runner etc.

As a close second, or even equal with the decathlon, I would place the winner of the TRIATHLON, (swim, cycle, run) next, as this too, is a much bigger examination of an athletes all-round abilities than just running, just swimming etc.

Thirdly I would place the winner of the modern pentathlon.

Phelps and Bolt just excel at one aspect. Granted within the swimming field Phelps is clearly ahead of other swimmers in terms of exceptional versality, but it's still all swimming.

Bear in mind, 3 of his medals were also TEAM medals. He had the good fortune to be an excellent swimmer in a nation of excellent swimmers.

It is unfortunate thought, that the decathlete competes in 10 events and gets ONE medal, whereas a swimmer can get 8 medals... although, I guess perhaps you could say the decathlete could also go and compete in each individual event of the decathlon, and go for medals in those events too... hmmmm

How about this:

Greatest sportsman is: Gary Kasparov! It's all about the mind!!!

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood (Post 1213257)

As far as Bolt, I can tell you he is crazy! 9.68 in the 100M and her let up at the end. In the 400M qualifier he just jogged next to the other person who was going full out.

400 or 200? I didn't know he ran the 400....

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cerek (Post 1213255)

The determining factor is the impact an athlete has on their sport and how completely they dominate the competition.

So let's look at Phelps and Bolt. I haven't got to see much of the Olympics, so I honostly don't know that much about Bolt's abilities.

Bolt is easily the best sprinter modern society has seen. In the 100, he completely blew away the field with a time never before recorded, in a manner never yet seen. Won the 200 with a world record too. Last time the 200 and 100 world records were held by one man, was in 1979. The last time one man won both the 100/200 at an olympics was Carl Lewis in 1984.

Also, factor in that sprinters have 3 rounds before a final, and as they've said "cannot back up like swimmers" to compete twice on the same day.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer...pat&id=3544760

Quote:

BEIJING -- Clearly, Lightning can strike twice.

Usain "Lightning" Bolt won his second Olympic gold medal in his second world-record time. He won the 100 meters Saturday while goofing around. He won the 200 on Wednesday while running dead serious. He is a multipurpose, multievent, multimood ballistic missile.

For the first time since 1979, one man holds the world record in both events. He was a Jamaican then (Donald Quarrie), and he is a Jamaican now. A nation with an outsized sprinting heritage has found its biggest star yet.

"Everything came together tonight," Bolt said. "I just blew my mind. I blew the world's mind."

He certainly blew Michael Johnson's mind. Johnson had owned the 200 record until now: 19.32 seconds. He set it in 1996, making it the oldest sprint record in the books.

Bolt already owned the 100 record, which is why he commenced showboating in the final meters of that race and lowered it by "only" three-hundredths of a second when he could have come close to hacking away a full second. He badly wanted a matching set of sprint marks.

"I saw I could get the world record in the 200, so I said, 'I'm going to leave everything on the track,'" Bolt said. Then he went out and did it.

He ran with complete focus through the finish, even noticeably straining a bit. The effort was needed to shave two-hundredths of a second off Johnson's mark and awaken the echoes of that hot night in Atlanta 12 years ago.

Johnson wore gold spikes then. Bolt wore them now.

When Johnson hit the wire then, he glanced to his left at the clock and threw his arms wide in jubilant shock. Bolt reacted in much the same way.

Earlier on Wednesday, Johnson said Bolt would break his 200 record someday, but probably not this day. Johnson cited Bolt's relative inexperience running the curve and said he'd need to improve in that area first.

Turns out Bolt's steep learning curve includes significant progress in running the curve. This race was so over by the time the 6-foot-5 Bolt roared into the straightaway.

[+] Enlarge

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Usain Bolt won the 200 in 19.30 seconds, becoming the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to sweep the 100 and 200 golds at an Olympics.
"Michael Johnson is a great athlete, and he revolutionized the sport," Bolt said. "I just changed it a little bit."

He changed it in part by being so tall for a sprinter. Bolt is far longer than the archetypal speedster, but with none of the awkwardness that might inhibit someone with limbs like his. As he flowed away from the field in the 200, his 9-foot strides looked effortless.

"He's beautiful to watch," said former Olympic gold medal hurdler Renaldo Nehemiah. "He's poetry in motion."

He's silliness at rest. In a sport rife with preening prima donnas, Bolt has taken posturing to a new level before, during and after a race. It seems relatively harmless -- goofy kid's stuff from a guy who just turned 22 on Thursday and was serenaded with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" by the Chinese fans at the Bird's Nest.

"He added spirit to the sport," said American Shawn Crawford, who benefited from two disqualifications for running outside the lanes to vault from fourth to second in the 200. "He danced in the introductions, and he danced at the end."

When Bolt was introduced to the huge crowd, he wiped his hands across the top of his head 11 times, wiped his brow in each direction and struck his now-familiar pose -- arms cocked skyward. Vague translation of all that: The rest of you are in deep trouble.

Afterward, Bolt briefly appeared overwhelmed by his accomplishment. Then he watched the replay on the big screen (his thought: "I look cool") and began one of the more lavish celebratory victory laps in Olympic history.

He did something approximating a limbo. He wiggled his knees. He waved his arms. He went over to the stands at several places to grab a flag or a hug. He took off his shoes and walked barefoot for a while.

"I was just happy," he said.

And eternally happy-go-lucky. Far and away, the two dominant stars of these Olympics are swimmer Michael Phelps and Bolt -- two child prodigies in their sports who have come to full flower here. Yet their excellence is accompanied by such markedly different personalities.

Phelps' massive caloric intake is expressly designed to feed a voracious metabolism -- he takes his food seriously. Bolt eats chicken nuggets whenever possible, including on race days. His mellow disposition allowed him to sleep until noon, then he asked his masseuse to bring him nuggets for lunch and nuggets for dinner.

Phelps is a mask of inscrutable concentration before a race, never acknowledging any outside presence when he's introduced. Bolt can't wait to mug for the camera and the fans.

When Phelps finished his races, his emotion tended to be directly proportionate to how close they were. He truly exulted over the close ones. Bolt hasn't had a close one here, but he has reacted like Chad Johnson on his showiest day.

But by midnight Wednesday, Bolt was decompressing and showing the effects of eight races here, counting prelims.

"I want to chill out," he said. "I just want to sleep. I wish I was in sandals right now, ready to take a weekend."

He could have won the 200 in sandals. But before it's time to take a weekend, Bolt still has to anchor a 400 relay team as the Jamaicans attempt to further their takeover bid of all the speed events.

So far in Beijing, the Jamaicans have won seven medals in events of 400 meters or shorter, while the Americans have won nine. But the tiny Caribbean country leads the big, bad U.S. in gold medals 4-2, and could add several more.

"We want to prove to the world we're the best," said Jamaican 400-meter hurdles gold medalist Melanie Walker.

This medal onslaught has produced delirium in Jamaica, where sprints are the national sport. Those who had TVs watched them when Bolt ran. Those who did not listened on the radio.

"I talked to the prime minister," Bolt said. "He told me everything in Jamaica is blocked off. Everyone is in the streets."

Lightning bolts usually send people running indoors. But Lightning Bolt striking twice is a reason to party in Jamaica.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yorick (Post 1213307)

400 or 200? I didn't know he ran the 400....

You are correct, sorry.

..and both the silver and bronze metals were taken from the runners as they were disqualified for stepping on the lines.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yorick (Post 1213306)

I would say the winner of the DECATHLON is the greatest athlete of the olympics. The Swimming medely is only 4 swimming strokes, whereas the Decathlete must be a sprinter, hurdler, jumper, middle distrance runner etc.

As a close second, or even equal with the decathlon, I would place the winner of the TRIATHLON, (swim, cycle, run) next, as this too, is a much bigger examination of an athletes all-round abilities than just running, just swimming etc.

Thirdly I would place the winner of the modern pentathlon.

That's like saying bard is the best class because he can cast spells, fight and steal.

I don't see how being a jack of all trades means being best. I'm much more inclined to agree with what Cerek wrote above.

And one more thing, multiple posting is considered poor etiquette. Anyway, I won't mention this again; it was already pointed out to you by others few times before.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Well, unlike the bard, a decathelet can do all those thing well. At least in BG a bard is not so much.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Well, if you're "running" solo, you may want a rounded character. In a party, that can change. ;)

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firestormalpha (Post 1213394)

Well, unlike the bard, a decathelet can do all those thing well. At least in BG a bard is not so much.

Not as well as the champions in these events.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

If I had to choose between the two, I would go for Bolt. Even though he won less medals, it's usually easier to get a bagful in swimming compared to athletics. Not to diminish the epic achievement from Phelps - if it was easy to get 8 golds in the Olympics other people would have done it too. The best Ian Thorpe could do was win 3 golds and 2 silvers in one Olympics, Phelps won 5 in Athens and 8 here. He's very versatile and can swim all the different strokes equally well I think.

But Bolt was like a THUNDERBOLT out of the blue. I hadn't even really heard of him till this Olympics. Plus running the 100m and 200m - two vastly different events - and blowing his competitors away was unforgettable. Plus he has a cool name. Bolt bolts away with the gold!

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memnoch (Post 1213399)

They are both in the very elite of their class - they aren't just excellent athletes, they are literally in a class by themselves in their respective fields. The same as Tiger Woods, MJ and a select few others.

I remembered seeing the qualifying heat for the 200m that Variol mentioned. It was just CRAZY! Bolt is just jogging along while his competitor is obviously running much harder. I don't know that the other guy was going completely flat out either, but he was definitely running with a lot more effort than Bolt.

And is there a more perfect name for a the fastest man on the planet than "Bolt"?

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

And! lest we forget; The Great One!

Yups, to me there's lots of heart wrenching, tear jerking moments to be had. I'm not at all talking about just Canada for me. Any athlete that excels at this level is worthy of praise.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZFR (Post 1213386)

Comparing a Decathlete to role-playing guidelines for a game's balance is beside the point.

My point is, the decathlon is a more complete examination of a persons athletic ability, and thus a better gauge of how athletic the person is.
The decathlete is not a "jack of all trades", the decathlon is a trade itself, and to succeed in that trade, you need either the greatest variety of athletic skills to succeed, or to be sufficiently good in a couple to "blow the other contestants out of the water".

Quote:

And one more thing, multiple posting is considered poor etiquette. Anyway, I won't mention this again; it was already pointed out to you by others few times before.

It's also considered etiquette to not derail a friendly thread, and take stuff like this to p/m.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

According to this website, Usain Bolt is the undisputed athletics king: (remembering that swimming is not athletics of course.) ;)

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/...ng-track-field

Quote:

Three finals. Three golds. Three world records.

Jamaican Usain Bolt is the undisputed athletics king of the Beijing Games.

The 22-year-old set an unprecedented three world records in snaring three gold medals - the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.

"I wouldn't say I'm a phenomenon, I'm just a great athlete," Bolt says.

Bolt's feats surpassed every other track and field competitor in Beijing, with honourable mentions to Ethiopia's distance running sensations Kenenisa Bekele, who claimed gold in the men's 5000m and 10,000m, and Tirunesh Dibaba, who completed the golden double in the same women's events.

Americans LaShawn Merritt (400m, 4x400m relay) and Angelo Taylor (400m hurdles, 4x400m relay) were the only other double gold medallists in Beijing.

Bolt set world records of 9.69 seconds and 19.30 in the 100m and 200m respectively.

He then ran the third leg in Jamaica's 4x100m relay squad that won gold in 37.10 - breaking the United States' 15-year-old world record.

Bolt was involved in setting three of five athletics world records in Beijing.

Russian starlet Elena Isinbaeva set her 24th world record in the pole vault at Beijing's awesome National Stadium, clearing 5.05m in a golden effort.

And her compatriot Gulnara Galkina-Samitova set a world benchmark of eight minutes 58.81 seconds in her runaway triumph in the women's 3000m steeplechase.

Some 18 Olympic athletics records were set at these Games, including Australian Steve Hooker's stirring pole vault triumph when he cleared 5.96m.

Australia finished equal eighth on the athletics medal table, with Hooker's gold, Sally McLellan's 100m hurdles silver and walker Jared Tallent's stunning 50km walk silver and 20km walk bronze - the first Australian man to win two medals at the same Olympics for more than 100 years.

Australia's tally was identical to that of Great Britain.

The United States headed the tally with 23 medals (seven gold, nine silver and seven bronze), followed by Russia (six gold, five silver, seven bronze).

Bolt highlighted Jamaica's 11 medals (six gold, five silver, seven bronze) which led to an overall fourth ranking, with Kenya next with 13 medals including five golds.

Bolt said the key to his success was a relaxed mindset.

"It might change my life, but I won't change," the Jamaican said.

"I try and stay relaxed by messing around and not thinking too much about the race.

"I don't allow people to put pressure on me. You might not be focused enough. When I enjoy myself I stay focused.

"I'll still enjoy myself, I'm still young. I'll still train hard. I'll try to keep on top for as long as I can.

"Running is enjoyable - you have to enjoy what you do.

"It's a job for us athletes, it's like working. To not enjoy it, it doesn't make sense.

"I enjoy it, I love it. Sometimes you think about quitting at training because that's hard.

"But it also makes success more great when you work hard for it."

Bekele's gold in the 5000m and 10,000m was the first such men's double since compatriot Miruts Yifter's feat over the same events at the 1980 Moscow Games.

The world record holder over both distances, Bekele described his double as "my best best accomplishment for sure".

"I did that for the people of Ethiopia," he said.

Bekele and compatriot Dibaba joined Americans Merritt and Taylor as dual athletics gold medallists.

Merritt was victorious in the men's 400m, usurping countryman and favourite Jeremy Wariner, and was also a member of the United States' successful 4x400m relay team.

Taylor was also a member of that relay and won the 400m hurdles.

Jamaica emerged as the unrivalled sprinting nation, Bolt's individual and relay golds matched in the women's 100m by Shelly-Ann Fraser and 200m by Veronica Campbell-Brown.

China's expectations of 110m hurdler Liu Xiang repeating his success in Athens four years ago were dashed when the national hero failed to race in his event because of a bone spur near his Achilles tendon.

His withdrawal on the starter's line was surreal, silencing the 91,000-strong crowd and prompting national mourning.

The host nation won just two athletics medals, both bronze - to Chunxiu Zhou in the women's marathon and Wenxiu Zhang in the women's hammer throw.

The Beijing Olympics were also notable for the demise of once great athletic power Germany, which won just the solitary bronze, in the women's javelin to Christina Obergfoll.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

And these are the best words out of all of it, which we should all try to apply

Quote:

...it's like working. To not enjoy it, it doesn't make sense.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

One thing I just noticed in the Bolt story, his 100m record was 9.69 s and 200 m was 19.30 s. That means he ran faster in the 200 m than the 100!

(2x9.69=19.38 s)

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

You could see he let up a bit at the end of the 100M. He knew he had it. If he hadn't slowed it would have been scary.

Re: Who is the best athlete at the Olympics - Phelps or Bolt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olorin (Post 1214070)

One thing I just noticed in the Bolt story, his 100m record was 9.69 s and 200 m was 19.30 s. That means he ran faster in the 200 m than the 100!

(2x9.69=19.38 s)

The average speed of the record for 200m has been higher than that of 100m for more almost 40 years now. You spend less %age of your time accelerating in 200m.