<p>According to this article, which I suspect the writer wrote just to make a flashy and controversial statement, boldly proclaims Michael Phelps to be the greatest athlete ever. As in the history of humankind. [Celizic:</a> Phelps officially world’s greatest athlete ever - Beijing Olympics News - MSNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26194188/]Celizic:”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26194188/)</p>
<p>Michael Phelps is a great athlete, no doubt, but he’s lucky to be so good at a sport that awards medals like stickers in a kindergarten class. Lebron James may be the greatest basketball player ever, but he’s not going to get gold medals for awesomest dunk, most points in a game, most rebounds in a game, etc. No matter how good the likes of Lebron James or Nastia Liukin or Roger Federer are at the Olympics, their ability to win a bulk of gold medals is severely hampered by their sport of choice, not their abilities.</p>
<p>Mike Celizic, the writer of the article, makes a couple of stupid (in my opinion) points. Firstly, he fails to acknowledge that the 50m race did not exist in Mark Spitz’s time, and had that race been an event, Spitz probably would’ve won it and Phelps would have to chase 9 golds. Secondly, he dismisses Lance Armstrong’s godlike 7 Tour de France titles as lesser than Phelps’ 8 golds because the Tour de France is, to him, just one type of race, while swimming encompasses various different strokes. I’m sorry, the Tour de France is one type of race? Hey Mike, France is not just a flat race course; there are mountains, for one thing. Various riders excel at different stages, and what made Armstrong unstoppable was that he was unbeatable in the mountains while he was also a very fast rider in the time trials and flat stages. </p>
<p>I enjoy watching swimming, but it’s such a medal gouge for Americans. 50m? 100m? 200m? AND the different strokes to each distance? Give me a break. Using that standard, we should a 50m dash, 100m backpedal, 100m skipping, 100m cartwheel. The difference between swimming distances and track distances is that generally, a track sprinter can’t win a 200m or a 400m (that’s what made Michael Johnson so special), while in swimming, you can easily compete in such diverse events as 200m AND the 1500m.</p>