I hope that you do not mind me starting a thread on my first post, but I saw this and wondered what swimmers would think about it. I swim, but not competitively.
Anyway, here is the question posted on LetsRun:
"Phelps is a phenomenal athlete.
How many of you runners who ran competitively in college think you could beat him in a foot race?
Any distance from 100 meters to the marathon, your choice."
You can see people's answers on the thread here, but I am interested in hearing what you think as well. This is an interesting question.
Thanks.
Former Member
When confronted by some who think that swimmers are not good athletes, my argument has always been: Swimmers can do a variety of sports, biking, running, kayaking, football, basketball, etc. to proficient levels (meaning that they might not win or die doing them but at least they finish) Allow Bolt or Johnson, Lewis, maybe even Owens to try swimming the amount swimmers do, they might actually drown and die. Even the distance runners, some of them, would probably drown and die.
Whoever says swimmers are not good athletes is just plain stupid.
I've seen great swimmers that were great runners and terrible runners. I've also seen not-so-good swimmers be great runners. Most of the good runners on my team were good swimmer, but I think it has more to do with work ethic. No direct correlation though.
There's really no reason to believe Phelps is a fast runner. Think about track stars getting in the pool. I'm pretty darn confident I could beat Usain Bolt in a swimming race of any stroke or distance.
