Bolt or Phelps?

Yeah, but nobody else has ever done it shattering the world record all three times. Nor has anyone else ever made it look downright effortless or won by the crazy margins Bolt did. And, out of curiosity, who else has done it besides Lewis and Bolt?

And, btw, your post makes me wonder if Bolt has ever even tried the long jump. With his stride, length, and ungodly top speed I bet he could make an unbelieveable long jumper if he ever set his mind to it.

 

Did you ever watch Carl Lewis? He looked pretty damned effortless most of the time.

Point is, what Bolt did has essentially been accomplished. What Phelps did has not.

And yes, Bolt probably would make a fantastic long jumper, but of course he'd have to work at it and he's admitted to being too lazy to train to run the 400.

 

Phelps' seven world records weren't nearly as impressive as Bolt's three. Hell, everyone set world records in swimming this year, thanks to the suits and other technology. How long had the records Phelps broke been around? A month? A year?

Bolt broke two records that had stood for more than a decade, and he destroyed the one that had been recently set -- his own -- in a truly transcendent performance.

 

Bolt could have run the 100 in 6.4 and the 200 in 13.2, and there still would be people who would say . . .

"But 8 > 3, so Phelps was better!"

 

And Jesse Owens also won the 100, 200, 4x100 and long jump. Again, what Bolt did has been done.

EDIT: Also Flo-Jo won the 100, 200 and 4x100 in Seoul.

BTE: I'm trying to look at it in terms of their respective sports. What Phelps did hasn't been accomplished by another swimmer. What Bolt did has.

 

I see the point.

But "world record" in swimming is like "home run" in 1998.

The term has lost all significance to me, because I seem to hear it a dozen times every meet.

 

Those people did NOT set the world record against the wind in both sprints.

 

Nope. No one had ever broken the 100 and 200 world records in a single Olympics before. Not to mention the WR in the 4x100. Bolt accomplished something that has never been done before.

 

If not for the wind, Flo Jo would have.

Sorry, but if you're discounting Phelps' WRs to make your point, you should discount Bolt's as well.

 

Not really. How many overall world record times were swam this year? And not just by the winners, but also by people who finished 2d, 3rd and sometimes even 4th. It seemed like by multiple people in every single event. Let's face it, the swimming records are suspect this year because of the super suits and fast pool--as someone else noted, sorta like late 90s home run records. Seems like every time anyone gets in a pool these days swimming WRs fall. Just common sense tells us something funny's going on, just like it should have in late 90s baseball.

But Bolt's records got no such help. He had no tailwind (in fact he had a headwind in the 200), was using normal shoes, and we ain't seen any of the funny stuff with world records in track recently like swimming.

 

Dementieva had 14 fewer double faults than her opponent in the final.

THAT's never been done before.

 

For me it was Bolt, just based on the eye test and how amazing he was to watch. I wish he had run their 4x4 team to a medal to really cement it, but even without that I gotta go with him.