Listening to the Olympic commentators makes me cringe sometimes. Some of these cretins are convinced Usain Bolt is a greater Olympian than Phelps.
No Way----NO FRIGGIN' WAY!!!!
=> Michael has won more total golds and total medals over a longer period of time He Owned the pool in Beijing. Bolt dominated two individual and one relay over two Olympiads.
=> Michael's career has lasted much longer than Bolt's.
=> Michael probably has the aerobic capacity of 3 Bolts put together.
=> Bolt is all fast-twitch fibers - honed to perfection for sure but I'd love to see him try to run a 400 or 800m.Michael is fast and slow twitch fibers.
Parents
Former Member
There must exist some type of quantitative Olympian greatness calculator, like ugh - medals or something?
The Sports-Reference web site is awesome for all sorts of Olympics statistics, as well as profiles and results of every Olympian.
Right now on their front page they have a list of the all-time top medal winners:
Top Medal Winners — Athletes
Athlete.................Country, Sport, Total
---------------------------------------
Michael Phelps............ USA, SWI, 22
Larysa Latynina.......... URS, GYM, 18
Nikolay Andrianov....... URS, GYM, 15
Borys Shakhlin........... URS, GYM, 13
Edoardo Mangiarotti.... ITA, FEN, 13
Takashi Ono.............. JPN, GYM, 13
Paavo Nurmi.............. FIN, ATH, 12
Bjørn Dæhlie.............. NOR, CCS, 12
Birgit Fischer-Schmidt.. GDR/GER, CAN, 12
Sawao Kato............... JPN, GYM, 12
Jenny Thompson......... USA, SWI, 12
Dara Torres............... USA, SWI, 12
Aleksey Nemov........... RUS, GYM, 12
Natalie Coughlin.......... USA, SWI, 12
Click on any of the above names to see a plethora of statistics about that athlete...
There must exist some type of quantitative Olympian greatness calculator, like ugh - medals or something?
The Sports-Reference web site is awesome for all sorts of Olympics statistics, as well as profiles and results of every Olympian.
Right now on their front page they have a list of the all-time top medal winners:
Top Medal Winners — Athletes
Athlete.................Country, Sport, Total
---------------------------------------
Michael Phelps............ USA, SWI, 22
Larysa Latynina.......... URS, GYM, 18
Nikolay Andrianov....... URS, GYM, 15
Borys Shakhlin........... URS, GYM, 13
Edoardo Mangiarotti.... ITA, FEN, 13
Takashi Ono.............. JPN, GYM, 13
Paavo Nurmi.............. FIN, ATH, 12
Bjørn Dæhlie.............. NOR, CCS, 12
Birgit Fischer-Schmidt.. GDR/GER, CAN, 12
Sawao Kato............... JPN, GYM, 12
Jenny Thompson......... USA, SWI, 12
Dara Torres............... USA, SWI, 12
Aleksey Nemov........... RUS, GYM, 12
Natalie Coughlin.......... USA, SWI, 12
Click on any of the above names to see a plethora of statistics about that athlete...
