Bolt or Phelps

[JerzeyReign]

Quote: Originally Posted by justblaze09

The fastest swimmer in the world is César Cielo of Brazil, not Michael Phelps.

Are you going off of 50M freestyle times? If so, some dude from France won the gold in the 50M.

[justblaze09]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerzeyReign

Are you going off of 50M freestyle times? If so, some dude from France won the gold in the 50M.

I'm going off the WR in the 100M free cause half of the 50 is your start.

Either way, at the end of the day, Sam said it best.

[JerzeyReign]

Ok, cool. Just for rhetorical purposes, the 50M freestyle event is used as the 'official' race to see who is the fastest swimmer in the world, not the 100M. Even if thats the case, Adrian won the 100M free this year making him the fastest in the world. :

[DrJones]

If number of medals are all-important, does this mean that the female Soviet gymnast from the 60s has been the "greatest Olympian ever" for the last 50 years or so until Phelps came along? If so, then it's not a very prestigious title.

Of the 30 athletes who have 10+ Olympic medals, 13 are gymnasts, 8 are swimmers, only 2 are from track. Ryan Lochte already has more medals than Carl Lewis. Meh. Comparing swimmers to gymnasts to track athletes is meaningless IMO.

[ImTellinTim]

I'm not sure why everything always has to be ranked or somone always has to be deemed the clear "GOAT". It's almost always a group of legends at the top, and at that point you're just splitting hairs.

I mean sure, Phelps has more medals than Spitz, but did he do it with a bitchin' mustache and a full head of mean lettuce without the aid of a cap? Didn't think so!

[dickey1331]

Id take Phelps. If Bolt can win both events in Rio then its a lot more closer.

[Po1soNNN]

Phelps has been around longer, so I'd evaluate Bolt after 4 years, and see if he's done and then look at his stats and decide.

[JerzeyReign]

Just wanted to point out that we didn't start this debate, so lets stop saying its a 'pointless' topic. Usain Bolt started this debate when he said he's the greatest Olympian ever.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerzeyReign

Just wanted to point out that we didn't start this debate, so lets stop saying its a 'pointless' topic. Usain Bolt started this debate when he said he's the greatest Olympian ever.

Actually, this debate was started by somebody who wanted to plug his blog (similar to other threads he's recently started on OS).

Also, if some of us feel the Bolt vs Phelps debate is apples vs oranges, and want to provide reasons why we think so, I'm pretty sure we're free to say as much, unless I've misread the TOS.

[facethetruth34]

Bolt, no question. Usain Bolt has only 3 events he can run per each olympics, and he is a total 6-for-6. Hes never lost on the biggest stage. Phelps has more events to run and doesnt have a perfect record