Author Topic: Michael Phelps: Greatest?  (Read 10787 times)

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Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« on: August 14, 2008, 04:35:30 PM »

Offline buddboy

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Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Muhammad Ali. All phenomenal players of their respective sports, and each arguably the greatest at what they do. Michael Jordan dominating the NBA for many years, winning 6 NBA championships, 6 Finals MVPs, 5 MVPs, accumulating 14 All-Star appearances, and holds innumerable records.

Tiger Woods, an unbelievable golfer. Woods has won fourteen professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 65 PGA Tour events, third all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour.

Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record nine times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has tied Jack Nicklaus' record of leading the money list in eight different seasons. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Muhammad Ali. In his own words, he was "The Greatest." Mike Tyson being the only boxer ever to truly challenge his status as the most unbelievably dominant fighter ever (that's a tough distinction to make, but I've got to go with Ali as the better pure boxer, Tyson as the more physically powerful), to date, he remains the only man to have won the linear heavyweight championship three times. Ali defeated almost every top heavyweight in his era, which has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. Ali was named "Fighter of the Year" by Ring Magazine more times than any other fighter, and was involved in more Ring Magazine "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He is an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and holds wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees. He is also one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. He is regarded as one of the best pound for pound boxers in history. He was a masterful self-promoter, and his psychological tactics before, during, and after fights became legendary. It was his athleticism and boxing skill, however, that enabled him to scale the heights and sustain his position for so many years.

But now. Perhaps, another? Michael Phelps. Winner of a record 11 Olympic gold medals. He has set the record for the men's 200m Butterfly 7 times. He holds an unbelievable 30 world records, having broken many of his own numerous times. I believe he has joined the ranks of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Muhammad Ali as not only the greatest swimmer ever, but the most unbelievably great Olympic champion the world has ever known.

What do you think?

BTW if you can think of any others that could be on this list, post them.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2008, 04:52:52 PM by buddboy »

Re: Michael Phelps: Question?
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2008, 04:42:09 PM »

Offline RebusRankin

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Wayne Gretzky

Re: Michael Phelps: Question?
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2008, 04:44:10 PM »

Offline Celtic Fan Forever

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Wayne Gretzky

Very true, I don't think there's one for baseball though. Babe Ruth maybe.
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Re: Michael Phelps: Question?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2008, 04:44:52 PM »

Offline Big Ticket

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Wayne Gretzky

His records may be more dominant than any other major team sport star out there.


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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #4 on: August 14, 2008, 04:57:11 PM »

Offline buddboy

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I definitely agree about Gretzky. Dunno why I didn't think of him. Of course I think hockey as a sport isn't really popular enough in the U.S. for him to get the appreciation he deserves, but that doesn't diminish his greatness.

Oh yeah of course Babe Ruth. Boy did I really miss a lot. He's probably one of the greatest sports stars ever, not just the greatest baseball player ever.

Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2008, 05:02:29 PM »

Offline celticmaestro

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Michael Schumacher.

Rocky Marciano = the GOAT - not Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali).

Diego Maradona.

Roger Federer? Pete Sampras?

Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2008, 05:36:13 PM »

Offline buddboy

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We're talking sports people actually care about. Haha j/k. But I have no idea who Schumacher or Maradona are.

I disagree about Marciano. Sure, he was great. But I don't think he really fought anybody all that great. Sure, he fought Joe Louis. But it was Louis' last fight! Archie Moore was the only guy he fought that was in his prime and is considered a great. That doesn't take away from his undefeated record and the fact that he only got knocked down twice in his career, but he didn't fight any true competition, in my opinion. He never had a Thrilla in Manila. He never came back from his loss against Foreman and managed to out-smart Foreman and neutralize George's unbelievable strength with an great new strategy. Of course there is an argument for Tyson or Marciano. I just disagree.

Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2008, 06:16:32 PM »

Offline Big Ticket

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Oh, and yes, to answer your main question.  Michael Phelps belongs in the discussion with these legends when discussing dominance in a sport.  It seems strange because he really only comes to the forefront for 2 weeks out of 4 years, but he is training close to year round I imagine, and he dominates the biggest stages, not just the Olympics, each year.  He might never be talked about and remembered as highly as these other guys because of the nature of his sport, but he has proven to be every bit as dominant, if not more, than each of them.


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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2008, 06:59:05 PM »

Offline crownsy

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Oh, and yes, to answer your main question.  Michael Phelps belongs in the discussion with these legends when discussing dominance in a sport.  It seems strange because he really only comes to the forefront for 2 weeks out of 4 years, but he is training close to year round I imagine, and he dominates the biggest stages, not just the Olympics, each year.  He might never be talked about and remembered as highly as these other guys because of the nature of his sport, but he has proven to be every bit as dominant, if not more, than each of them.

I concur with the senator from Minnesota, Phelps deserves to mentioned in that dominate athlete pantheon, and is certainly the most dominate Olympian ever. Also, he's 23 and says he has designs on one more Olympics, though he said he won't be going for 8 again.

If he swims as dominantly as he did in 2008 in 2012, he's in the discussion for greatest athlete of all time. people don't realize how athletically perfect you have to be to swim at that level. I tried swimming competitively in HS, and i couldn't take the training at that low level, and i was pretty athletic in HS. If you want to be any good, you need to be in training ALL the time, and on a diet, and swimming multiple miles per day working on your form, and then off to the weight room, then back to the pool. its brutal man.

add that to the fact that he does it at the highest level, and there's no off season with all the meets around the world and you've got an amazing athlete.

I will say, i was defiantly in the best shape of my life that fall for football after the program for 6 months :D
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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2008, 11:51:58 PM »

Offline MBz

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He's a flat out beast.  He should be in the discussion, what he does is at another level.  He's dominating these races.  It's just ridiculous.  I don't think I've ever seen a performance like he's done in the Olympics so far.
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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2008, 12:21:15 AM »

Offline Celtics17

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The title is kind of vague-"greatest", greatest what? Is he the most dominant Olympic athlete of all time? Absolutely. Is he the most dominant athlete the Olympics has ever produced? That is much harder to answer. As mentioned, many other greats have preceded him. M.J. and let's not forget that our own Bill Russell has one championship ring for every gold medal that Phelps has. And, oh yeah, Bill also has a gold medal of his own too.

As far as other dominant athletes that should be on the list. If we are talking about just those who have competed in the Olympics then I cant think of any others but if not, then I would have to say the late Wilt Chamberlain belongs in any discussion of the best all around athletes to ever grace any stage. Wilt could do it all and do it better then anyone. He was not a team sport person but as far as individual all around athletic ability goes there are few if any who compare.

Now, if you don't know anything about Wilt the please don't respond with a comment that he was just tall and uncordinated. Wilt was strong enough to palm you by the head and throw you out the door and I dont care how big or how strong you might think you are, you are not as strong as Wilt was.

Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2008, 12:48:44 AM »

Offline Induna

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No swimming is a minority sport - Carl Lewis is the greatest Olympian - and even in minority sports Steve Redgrave won 5 gold medals in FIVE different olympics

In sport there is only one greatest!!

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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2008, 01:10:47 AM »

Offline Tommy

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Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson absolutely have to be considered one of the greatest. Personally, I put them on the same level as Phelps. One thing we forget when we look at Phelps' many medals is that swimming has many, many different races that are very similar. For example, in swimming there is something like 4 different 100 meter races. In track, there is only 1. Therefore, the opportunity for collecting 8 gold medals in one Olympics is only possible in the pool.



Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2008, 01:35:16 AM »

Offline Amonkey

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Quote
Michael Schumacher.

Rocky Marciano = the GOAT - not Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali).

Diego Maradona.

Roger Federer? Pete Sampras?

I like your selection.  Michael Schumacher was def dominant.  I wish Ayrton Senna was alive to see those two go head to head.  Schumacher didn't really have anybody to compete against him.  However, I would take Diego Maradona out just because he could've been so much better than he was.  I think Pele belongs to the greatest soccer player ever, and if Maradona didn't slow down due to his drug problems, I think he would've easily overtaken him.  However, the drugs really brought him down.  By the way, did you know that Diego Maradona's illegitimate son, Diego Maradona Jr., plays beach soccer for Italy.
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Re: Michael Phelps: Greatest?
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2008, 02:05:41 AM »

Offline orrzor

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I think this whole Phelps thing is overblown. There are so many events due to the strokes, and different distances that are not so different that it is much much easier to rack up gold medals. At least Carl Lewis could do both sprints and long jump, which are pretty different. Also just because you have the most gold medals doesnt make you the greatest Olympian. But Phelps is amongs the best for sure.