The Olympics: Witness Greatness-Again

Jordan. Ruth. Rice. Nicklaus. The list continues. The greatest players in each sport. Season after season, every year of pure dominance. There were no breaks for those athletes (well, except for Jordan.) Every end to the season meant another four months of fine tuning and they’d be competing again.

This is half the case for American swimmer Michael Phelps. Yes- there is a season he competes in every year. But there is also one clear goal that he uses those seasons to train for- Olympic gold. And although his “championship performance” comes out only every four years- it can still be argued that he is the greatest athlete of our time.

Phelps has set 39 world records in swimming. 29 being completely individual. Legend Babe Ruth only has three baseball records. And although Phelps only holds seven of those records still to this day- the bar has been set to any other challenger who would like to attempt to break 40 swimming records in a career.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps won a record breaking eight gold medals, five of them being individual and three of them being relays. All but one of those gold medals were world record breaking times. He won every event he swam in, and broke fellow swimmer Mark Spitz’s Olympic record of seven gold medals. That record had stood since 1972.

 Here’s the kicker though- he has even more Olympic gold’s.

In 2004, Phelps snagged six additional gold medals. Four of those were individual. That adds Phelps’ astonishing Olympic gold medal total to 14. Nine of which are individual, with five of them breaking the world record at the time. Add two bronze medal performances in 2004 to Phelps’ list and he has a grand total of 16 Olympic medals on his athletic resume. That’s probably the most Olympic medals all time right? Well, no. Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina has 18 Olympic medals total, nine of them being gold. But that was from 1956-1964, which means she is for sure not competing anymore. Well guess what. Phelps is competing again. This summer. Seven more times. That means there is a strong possibility he could shatter the Olympic medals record- and add to his record of most gold in Olympic history as well.

“Epic. It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time. He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet.”- Mark Spitz (Phelps’ predecessor-on Phelps after his seventh gold medal in 2008. He added one more for the record after.)

Well what about the world’s greatest athlete Jim Thorpe? The man who won two gold medals and also played professional baseball and football? A short answer: Thorpe won gold in the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912. Both of those performances would be shattered by the 1950’s in time. Thorpe played baseball for six years with a .252 career batting average and a total of 186 hits in those years. Thorpe had a wonderful college football career, that’s about it.

Think this is a diss to Jordan? Even Lance Armstrong-who won six Tour de France’s in a row?  Nope- Jordan has set only 13 NBA records. Armstrong’s amazing six straight Tour de France’s have been somewhat blinded by his alleged steroid ousted career. Phelps has continuously set and broken his own and other swimming records, mostly by himself. No team to help him out.

In Phelps’ career of gold medal races, which comprises of his two Olympics, World Championships (every even year) and Pan Pacific Championships (every odd year), Phelps has won 52 gold medals. Need it in sports terms? Think of it as being comparable to Tiger winning 20-25 majors. (He has 14 currently.)

If Phelps can manage to win gold in three out of seven of his scheduled events starting in about a week and half at the 2012 Olympic games, he will set a new standard in athletic competition. He will hold the record for the most gold medals in a single Olympics, have the most medals, and add to his already enormous lead in total gold medals won in Olympic history. Three out of seven? That seems like a premonition, not a challenge.

In any case, the argument for Phelps being the greatest athlete ever is clearly plausible. Training day after day- just like the greats right now- Kobe, Tiger, Brady etc. Yet having something more distinguished then three super bowls or 14 major championships.

Every four years the Olympics come around, and for the past two times, the only name we’ve been hearing about is Michael Phelps. A record breaking Olympian. And still going strong.