My email to the columnist (PHersh@tribune.com):
"Appreciate one point of your article. That Phelps is the best Olympian ever because of his medal count is a silly assertion. This is not something most people in the swimming community would argue. Rather, it's something you in the mass media have been asserting. As if you can truly rank athletes in completely different disciplines objectively. That's absurd.
Your article sounds like it was written by someone who has never seriously attempted the sport of swimming. I would guess you are writing out of ignorance when you assert that swimming is any easier than track and field. Why don't you try them both at the elite level and then make your decision.
As a former Olympic Trial qualifier in swimming, I can tell you I worked just as hard as any athlete out on the track in my prime. Two hours of swimming every morning (starting at 5am), an hour of weights, and two more hours of swimming every afternoon all through high-school and college. Six days a week all year round. To say this kind of training isn't hard on the human body is absurd.
I'd like to see if your track and field superstars are training that hard. Perhaps they are, so I won't assert that my sport is MORE demanding. I will say, though, that within the sport of swimming Phelps has accomplished just as much as Carl Lewis did within the sport of track. Both deserve a place in the pantheon of the super-elite. To say one is better seems kind of silly. But you in the media do love to promote the "silly"..."
My email to the columnist (PHersh@tribune.com):
"Appreciate one point of your article. That Phelps is the best Olympian ever because of his medal count is a silly assertion. This is not something most people in the swimming community would argue. Rather, it's something you in the mass media have been asserting. As if you can truly rank athletes in completely different disciplines objectively. That's absurd.
Your article sounds like it was written by someone who has never seriously attempted the sport of swimming. I would guess you are writing out of ignorance when you assert that swimming is any easier than track and field. Why don't you try them both at the elite level and then make your decision.
As a former Olympic Trial qualifier in swimming, I can tell you I worked just as hard as any athlete out on the track in my prime. Two hours of swimming every morning (starting at 5am), an hour of weights, and two more hours of swimming every afternoon all through high-school and college. Six days a week all year round. To say this kind of training isn't hard on the human body is absurd.
I'd like to see if your track and field superstars are training that hard. Perhaps they are, so I won't assert that my sport is MORE demanding. I will say, though, that within the sport of swimming Phelps has accomplished just as much as Carl Lewis did within the sport of track. Both deserve a place in the pantheon of the super-elite. To say one is better seems kind of silly. But you in the media do love to promote the "silly"..."
