Better Olympian: Usain Bolt vs Michael Phelps

[Olorun22]

There is really no wrong answer, here...

But niggas are seriously downplaying the difficulty of competitive swimming.

Yeah by having a debate on who is the greatest Olympian..smh

 

[Peace_79]

There is really no wrong answer, here...

But niggas are seriously downplaying the difficulty of competitive swimming.

Yeah by having a debate on who is the greatest Olympian..smh

No ... by downplaying the difficult of competitive swimming

Like I said...

 

[The Lonious Monk]

I don't know which one is the best Olympian. I will say this. You would think that Bolt was American with the kinda coverage he gets here. That's a testament to his greatness because Americans don't tend to give a shit about any else but other Americans.

 

[Hevalisk]

There is really no wrong answer, here...

But niggas are seriously downplaying the difficulty of competitive swimming.

People are also downplaying the difficulty in completing the 100m, 200m, and 400m in a single championship.

The person who made the football comparison hasn't responded to my question, so I'm not sure which they were referring to.

But, Track isn't Football, a person in Football isn't going to be as negatively affected as a sprinter would be if they were suddenly .15-.20 seconds slower in a full extended sprint. In sprint events that's the difference between being a champ, and not even making it into the finals.

Can someone run the 100, 200, and 400 at a single championship? Yes.

Are they going to win gold in each one? Hell no, not unless the competition that year is extra weak, and there aren't many occasions where you will have weak fields in all three sprint events.

 

[Shizlansky]

If you swim the 200 and run the 200. Your body would be more fatigued from swimming than running.

On top he participated in more events which makes you even more tired.

 

[Hevalisk]

If you swim the 200 and run the 200. Your body would be more fatigued from swimming than running.

On top he participated in more events which makes you even more tired.

Apples and Oranges, swimming will take more out of you, but it's not going to have the same wear and tear that running does. I'm not saying swimming is easier, I'm saying it doesn't impact you the same way running does, so if someone wanted to push themselves to the limit in swimming, they can do that without worry about pulling something, or giving themselves a stress fracture.

In running if someone doesn't take a couple days rest from that kind of hard running, the effects will start to show in their times, and I'll say again, Track isn't football, Football isn't measuring who can run the fastest in a straight line, so those time differences are relatively unnoticeable in FB

Like people have said before, there is a reason you never see any sprinters doing the 100, 200, 400 in a single meet, especially a big one with rounds.

Not to mention, track has less "short" distance events than swimming, If you added the 150m dash, and the 4x200 to the Olympics that would quickly increase his medal count.

Many high profile Track & Field coaches and former athletes will tell you Bolt should have ran the 400 during a couple of his active years, but they will never tell you he should do the 100, 200, and 400 all at one meet. (well a few would, there are always those few)

 

[The Lonious Monk]

If you swim the 200 and run the 200. Your body would be more fatigued from swimming than running.

On top he participated in more events which makes you even more tired.

The first point isn't really a good point. Swimmers don't compete against runners. They compete against other swimmers, so how swimming compares to running is irrelevant. If we're judging by what event is more grueling then they both lose because there are far more grueling events in the Olympics than what either one of them compete in.

The second point is valid though.

I will point out this. Bolt has never lost a race in the Olympics. And I don't just mean he's always gotten the gold. I mean, he's never come in anything but first in any Olympic race be it preliminaries, semifinals or finals. So yeah, Phelps does more events, but he's also lost or been challenged in those events. Bolt has never lost in the Olympics and if we're being honest, he's never even been challenged. The best athletes perform even better when they have someone challenging them. Phelps has had that and benefitted from it. Bolt never has, so it's probably the case that we've never even seen Bolt at his potential best.

 

[Will Munny]

Bolt by a narrow margin. Everyone can run, not everyone can swim. The pyramid of humanity that must be conquered to be the fastest sprinter is much bigger than that of the fastest swimmer.

 

[Revolver Ocelot]

I'm going with Bolt but Bolt has lost races.

In 2004 Olympics he lost in semifinals for the 100m.

 

[The Lonious Monk]

I'm going with Bolt but Bolt has lost races.

In 2004 Olympics he lost in semifinals for the 100m.

Yeah you're right. I should have prefaced that by saying since 2008 when he was in his prime. Phelps has lost during his prime. Bolt has not.

 

[Beta]

 

[ineedpussy]

but back to my earlier statement. until he races against blacks he aint shit. thats like playing basketball in the 40's and being bill russell against crap white boys

 

[The Lonious Monk]

but back to my earlier statement. until he races against blacks he aint shit. thats like playing basketball in the 40's and being bill russell against crap white boys

That doesn't make any sense. It's not like there is a separate swimming league of blacks that Phelps is ducking. Blacks simply aren't elite swimmers.

The medal count argument needs to stop. Phelps is great, but he's competing in a sport that has a million different events. He still may be the best Olympian ever, but it would be because of how dominant he has been across four sets of games not because he has a bloated number of medals.

 

[Shizlansky]

but back to my earlier statement. until he races against blacks he aint shit. thats like playing basketball in the 40's and being bill russell against crap white boys

That doesn't make any sense. It's not like there is a separate swimming league of blacks that Phelps is ducking. Blacks simply aren't elite swimmers.

The medal count argument needs to stop. Phelps is great, but he's competing in a sport that has a million different events. He still may be the best Olympian ever, but it would be because of how dominant he has been across four sets of games not because he has a bloated number of medals.

He has the most medals in a single olympic.

 

[CeLLaR-DooR]

Bolt runs no more than 600m for his three gold medals per Olympics. No more than two races a day for Bolt. While Phelps is in the water all day for a week. Phelps will break a world record in one race then have to be ready to go again in less than an hour. Bolt is more dominant but Phelps is the better Olympian. Phelps is actually racing against people who have a chance to beat him but he finds a way to win. That is greatness.

you just made a better case for Bolt

Yes for being more dominant but the thread is about being the better olympian.

You don't even make sense. Dominanting your field is part of being a better olympian. Why are you trying to separate the two is beyond me.

Usmarin3 is right he has made the most sense. Running is harder on your body than swimming.

Has bolt received gold in every event hes been in

Mike Tyson was more dominant than Ali. Is Tyson the better boxer? Bolt runs no more than 2 races per day in the olympics. Yall acting like that is a killer schedule. If you played any kind of sport you have ran more than that at any practice. Hell Michael Johnson was running the 200 & 400 in the same day. That's a way harder schedule than Bolt.

Is Bolt the Goat sprinter? Hell Yes

Is Bolt the Goat Olympian? Hell No

I'm through with this yall can have it. I ain't changing my opinion and obviously yall ain't changing yours.

Peace

Prime Tyson the GOAT heavyweight my G

 

[CeLLaR-DooR]

If you're a swimmer and you're dope like Phelps is, you're bound to win more medals. They've got freestyle, butterfly and medley at 4 different distances.

Not to discount Phelps' achievements but this is an extremely high standard.

I think we'll see another Phelps before we see a Bolt.

No vote

 

[CeLLaR-DooR]

Bolt by a narrow margin. Everyone can run, not everyone can swim. The pyramid of humanity that must be conquered to be the fastest sprinter is much bigger than that of the fastest swimmer.

Case closed, I'd say

 

[The Lonious Monk]

but back to my earlier statement. until he races against blacks he aint shit. thats like playing basketball in the 40's and being bill russell against crap white boys

That doesn't make any sense. It's not like there is a separate swimming league of blacks that Phelps is ducking. Blacks simply aren't elite swimmers.

The medal count argument needs to stop. Phelps is great, but he's competing in a sport that has a million different events. He still may be the best Olympian ever, but it would be because of how dominant he has been across four sets of games not because he has a bloated number of medals.

He has the most medals in a single olympic.

So what. If you're a wrestler or a boxer, you have to go through several grueling matches and only get one medal. Say you dominate in that sport for four different Olympics, that's an unheard of feat, but you'll still only have 4 medals. Is Phelps automatically better than that athlete just because Phelps' sport is set up in a way that will allow him to win 5 or 6 medals ever Olympics? I mean Phelps could have a competed in 6 events each Olympics and won gold in half and lost the other half badly. He still would have had the most Gold medals in history. Would you still say he's the greatest Olympian?

 

[Shizlansky]

but back to my earlier statement. until he races against blacks he aint shit. thats like playing basketball in the 40's and being bill russell against crap white boys

That doesn't make any sense. It's not like there is a separate swimming league of blacks that Phelps is ducking. Blacks simply aren't elite swimmers.

The medal count argument needs to stop. Phelps is great, but he's competing in a sport that has a million different events. He still may be the best Olympian ever, but it would be because of how dominant he has been across four sets of games not because he has a bloated number of medals.

He has the most medals in a single olympic.

So what. If you're a wrestler or a boxer, you have to go through several grueling matches and only get one medal. Say you dominate in that sport for four different Olympics, that's an unheard of feat, but you'll still only have 4 medals. Is Phelps automatically better than that athlete just because Phelps' sport is set up in a way that will allow him to win 5 or 6 medals ever Olympics? I mean Phelps could have a competed in 6 events each Olympics and won gold in half and lost the other half badly. He still would have had the most Gold medals in history. Would you still say he's the greatest Olympian?

We ain't talking about boxing or wrestling. We talking about running vs swimming

 

[coop9889]

There is no such thing as greatest Olympian. Period. There is no consensus definition that makes logical sense.

You have "most decorated" which is almost always going to go to the greatest of swimmers.

Then you have "most dominant". Most dominant should be the discussion here, and I'd say it's Bolt.