[meru]

Now, Michael Phelps is a fantastic swimmer, no question. But his medal count is way inflated. If they had as many similar-but-slightly-different events for runners, I don't think there's any question that Bolt could beat it. 150M? 300M? Why not? And, let's face it, who really cares about swimming? But the 100M is THE event of the Olympics, and Bolt just won it in the most amazing way imaginable. And it's about the second major event he's even TRIED 100M in - his coach thought he should try 400M, but he didn't want to be hassled.

The mania about Phelps reminds me of how, growing up in England, we all suddenly became figure scating fans when Torville and Dean started winning, or Decathlon fans with Daley Thompson, or 1500M fans with Steve Ovett, Seb Coe and Steve Cram. But even then, we knew the 100M was where it was at.

[HispanicCausinPanic]

WHo does Bolt play for, Golden State? I know Philly picked up Phelps from their summer league squad.

[nikolokolus]

Originally Posted by meru

Now, Michael Phelps is a fantastic swimmer, no question. But his medal count is way inflated. If they had as many similar-but-slightly-different events for runners, I don't think there's any question that Bolt could beat it. 150M? 300M? Why not? And, let's face it, who really cares about swimming? But the 100M is THE event of the Olympics, and Bolt just won it in the most amazing way imaginable. And it's about the second major event he's even TRIED 100M in - his coach thought he should try 400M, but he didn't want to be hassled.

The mania about Phelps reminds me of how, growing up in England, we all suddenly became figure scating fans when Torville and Dean started winning, or Decathlon fans with Daley Thompson, or 1500M fans with Steve Ovett, Seb Coe and Steve Cram. But even then, we knew the 100M was where it was at.

You're completely right Phelps' accomplishments are completely overblown. I mean c'mon swimmers get 7 or 8 gold medals in one Olympics all the time, while breaking 6 world records out of 7 races. /sarcasm

With all this bitterness about Phelps and his medals you'd think you were Canadian or something (woot! they're up to 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze now).

[bball2223]

Originally Posted by nikolokolus

You're completely right Phelps' accomplishments are completely overblown. I mean c'mon swimmers get 7 or 8 gold medals in one Olympics all the time, while breaking 6 world records out of 7 races. /sarcasm

With all this bitterness about Phelps and his medals you'd think you were Canadian or something (woot! they're up to 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze now).

Agreed. It's his versatility more than anything thats amazing.

[meru]

Originally Posted by nikolokolus

You're completely right Phelps' accomplishments are completely overblown. I mean c'mon swimmers get 7 or 8 gold medals in one Olympics all the time, while breaking 6 world records out of 7 races. /sarcasm

His accomplishments are only overblown to the extent that it's too easy in swimming to get multiple medals because of the similarity of the events. He is, of course, the best swimmer of his generation, if you don't consider speed over particularly short distances.

It would be interesting to see how many of the records would have been broken anyway if Phelps wasn't in the race. It seems to me that just about every race in swimming several of the swimmers are ahead of the "green line". Something to do with the new suits, perhaps?

Phelps certainly deserves to be considered one of the major stories of these games. (In particular because of the short time he had to prepare for some of the races because he was entered in so many.)

BUT, given the comparative importance attached to the sprints (the 100M is THE event of the Olympics), the comparative UNimportance of swimming, and the INSANE way that Bolt won it, Bolt deserves more acclaim.

With all this bitterness about Phelps and his medals you'd think you were Canadian or something (woot! they're up to 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze now).

Hey, way to take the high road! Anyone would think you were feeling sore because the Chinese have nearly doubled the US Gold medal count.

[rocketeer]

Originally Posted by meru

Now, Michael Phelps is a fantastic swimmer, no question. But his medal count is way inflated. If they had as many similar-but-slightly-different events for runners, I don't think there's any question that Bolt could beat it. 150M? 300M? Why not? And, let's face it, who really cares about swimming? But the 100M is THE event of the Olympics, and Bolt just won it in the most amazing way imaginable. And it's about the second major event he's even TRIED 100M in - his coach thought he should try 400M, but he didn't want to be hassled.

would you consider the hurdles to be similar but slightly different?

[rocketeer]

Originally Posted by meru

Hey, way to take the high road! Anyone would think you were feeling sore because the Chinese have nearly doubled the US Gold medal count.

i wouldn't call 26 nearly double 17.

[SodaPopinski]

meru - your Anti-Americanism is hilarious. Nobody with half a brain considers Bolt to be a bigger story or better athlete than Phelps.

I'm guessing if Tyson Gay or Walter Dix wins the 100m and sets the world record, you wouldn't make a peep.

Nobody cares about Bolt. He's probably the 3rd biggest Olympics story of the day in this country. Behind USA-Spain and Phelps.

-Pop

[Verro]

Yeah I kind of agree that sports where there are significant barriers to entry like high costs or rare facilities, kind of have over blown champions. Bolt is definitely a much more impressive athlete, not that Phelps isn't impressive.

The same argument could be made for similar sports like golf though. If inner city kids grew up playing golf the way they do basketball, eight hours a day every day from the time they could barely walk, would Tiger even be a top 10 golfer?

[meru]

Just to clarify, I will admit I'm being a bit petty here, and I don't want to denigrate Phelps's greatness as a swimmer. What pisses me off is
1. The apparently arbitrary range of things that get medals, so that if you're great at one particular thing you qualify for a chance at several medals, whereas if you're great at another, you only get a chance at one.
2. NBC ignoring 1 and hyping Phelps as if he were Jesus H. Christ. It reminds me strongly of all the Kobe-as-MVP hype we got around the playoffs last year.

Swimming is okay in its place, but it's not a signature Olympic Sport. And I say this as Brit, whose country's medals are in bicycling and rowing (AND swimming).

[meru]

Originally Posted by SodaPopinski

meru - your Anti-Americanism is hilarious. Nobody with half a brain considers Bolt to be a bigger story or better athlete than Phelps.

I'm guessing if Tyson Gay or Walter Dix wins the 100m and sets the world record, you wouldn't make a peep.

Nobody cares about Bolt. He's probably the 3rd biggest Olympics story of the day in this country. Behind USA-Spain and Phelps.

Your insularity is amazing. You don't really believe this do you? Even the NY Times has a complicated multi-media analysis of Bolt's win on the front page of its website. Most Chinese don't even know Phelps's name. But I guess only Americans matter?

EDIT: Here's a challenge for you: find a web page of an international newspaper that lists USA-Spain above Bolt. Or even Phelps above Bolt. You can't.

(And as for USA-Spain - which didn't even affect either one's chances of advancing, I guarantee you that that won't even get ANY airtime in most countries of the world.)

Interesting you mention Walter Dix. He was sort of overlooked in the Gay hype-fest. He probably feels a bit underapreciated. Loved those dinky sleeves he was sporting. But he had as much chance of beating Bolt as I do of outswimming Phelps. Thompson, the Silver medalist, was closer to the last finisher than he was to Bolt, who slowed down and started waving to the crowd after about 60M!

If you want an American athlete whose multiple golds were TRULY impressive, it has to be Carl Lewis, possibly the greatest Olympian of my lifetime (and a complete jerk). He at least got them in two genuinely different sports...

[Perfection]

Originally Posted by meru

It would be interesting to see how many of the records would have been broken anyway if Phelps wasn't in the race. It seems to me that just about every race in swimming several of the swimmers are ahead of the "green line". Something to do with the new suits, perhaps?

True, technology is aiding the speed time of swimmers, but it's ignorant to think that only swimmers get a boost from improvements in equipment.

You should read up about the improvements being made in footwear that allow runners to have better traction and stability while decreasing the weight of the shoe. Nike's Flywire technology is one example: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9998061-1.html

Somewhere else I read about Adidas working to create shoes that mimic the ability of Nascar tires; runners, like cars on a track, only turn left and never right, so they can build the spikes in the shoe in such a way that it allows more force to be generated on the outside part of the right shoe while on the curves of a turn, allowing the runner to accelerate faster than would otherwise be possible.

[R-Star]