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

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

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..

[Firestormalpha]

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.

[SpiritWarrior]

We all know it's the federation anyways.

[Firestormalpha]

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

[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 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..

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?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

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.

[Yorick]

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!!!

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 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....

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Cerek 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

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.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Originally Posted by Yorick 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.