Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalberta
Its not trashing Phelps. What he did was amazing but NO ONE EVER has had the gold medal in the 100 and 200 (and had the WR). Those are normally very different racers.
Old balls spitz or whatever his name is had 7 so its not un heard of to rack up all the medals in swimming.
It is unheard of in the modern era (under 10s for 100m) to have a guy hold the gold and WR in both the 100 and 200. If he was from the US it might be close, because he is not Phelps will win the media war.
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Actually, your incorrect, 8 men have won both the 100 and 200 at the same Olympics, its quite common. There have also been many who have had held both records simultaneously. Although its is quite rare to break both records and win both but it has happened before. No question, what Usain did was incredible. he probably changed the paradigm for the typical sprinter at a slim 6'5". I think you are going to see bigger guys running the sprints now.
None of that diminishes what Phelps has done. He is also a very big guy who has completed an extraordinary feat that has never been done before. There was chatter back a few pages about new swimming events and so on. The fact is that butterfly is not really a new event, it was called the breaststroke up till the 1956 Olympics. By 1952 the event known as the breaststroke were using the butterfly technique as it fit into the rules definition at the time. You could claim that Phelps is the best swimmer of all time as he is clearly the best in the fly and the front crawl, and he could probably swim a world record in the backstroke if we would not have to practice the old breaststroke for the IM.
The word is that Phelps is sticking around for the next Olympics and will drop the IM because its so hard to train for. He is not finished and already has 14 gold medals over two Olympics.
Can you say that Usain Bolt is the best runner of all time? maybe, but probably not yet. Jesse Owens won 100, the 200 and the long jump(as did Carl Lewis). He broke the records in the long jump and 100 and the 4x100 relay.