Who am I talking about? The great Olympians of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps of course. The two athletes have been battling for the title of the best Olympian ever.
Lots of people will have various opinions on this topic and for good reason, the two are great athletes. Most Americans will say Phelps. Those Americans are generally biast. That being said, numbers don't lie. 28 medals is unprecedented in this era of the Olympics and to add to all of it, the high majority of his medals are Gold.
In regards to Usain Bolt. Nine Olympic races in the last three Olympiads and nine Gold medals. Not one final lost. More importantly, most of Bolt's victories, he blew away his opponents in a sport that is usually decided by photo finishes.
The number of Swimming events doesn't make Phelps the greatest, there is way too may. It would be like if Track had the 100M Bunny - Hop. It would be laughable and Track would be looked at as a circus instead of a Olympic event.
Too add to Bolt's superiority, Bolt has more competition. Every country has a fast runner that does the 100M dash but not every country has a powerful swim team.
To be brutally honest America, if Bolt was American and Phelps was Jamaican, all you guys would be saying how great he was, because that's how Americans roll.
For me, there is no debate, Bolt is without question the more impressive athlete. Phelps was born in the States, has every chance to succeed in America with world class training facilities and excellent coaching.
In Bolt's case, his hometown is Kingston, Jamaica. A city littered with crime and violence. Not only is it tough to focus on sports, but it also must have been tough to stay away from the bad influences and to have no local sports leader to look up to. It's completely different circumstances.
Phelps was great. He dominated his sport and no one can take that away from him. However, Bolt got non Track and Field fans to tune into his races because he was competing. Therefore, he has altered the sport of Track and everyone wants to be like Bolt around the world. In Phelps's case, only Americans want to be the next Michael Phelps.
And Phelps never got non-Swimming fans to tune into his sport while he was competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics? If Phelps weren't American, then would people think differently of this "Greatest Olympian" debate?
ReplyDeleteAs much as I think Bolt is a great athlete, I really dislike the "everyone has the ability to run, but not everyone has the ability to swim" argument. That's essentially admitting that the "Phelps vs. Bolt" debate is comparing apples vs. oranges. And I truly believe that is the case here, so it is impossible to compare the two at all.
The bottom line is they are both equally dominant in their own ways, and we're probably not going to see the likes of such dominance by two Olympians in the same Generation in a very long time.