Greatest U.S. Olympian

Owens appeared in ONE Olympics. One.
Yes, he won four gold medals, three of individually. That's a Great accomplishment. But it's a far cry from him being considered the greatest U.S. Olympian - muchless making the list.
His impact was more social than anything ... But not really.
He was actually treated better in Germany than in his own country. And that didn't change when got home.


BTW: I think swimmers have an unfair advantage in terms of medals as well. It seems they have a lot more events in which to compete than most other athletes.

 

As every one of these discussions does, we come back to what "greatest" means.

 

Wasn't he kind of afraid of his wife?

 

BTTT? Release the hounds? Blue font? One of those catch-phrases HAS to work when a guy comes on here and does what I'm about to do:

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/19713121/phelps-rules-the-pool-but-former-track-star-owens-best-olympian-of-all-time

 

I get what you're saying, but he should be an option. Dara Torres has zero individual gold medals and is an option. And your choice was Thorpe, who only competed in one Olympics, as well, and only won two medals.

 

Spock

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sp/ben-spock-1.html

 

I'd go with Phelps.

I'd also have Jackie Joyner-Kersee on the list way ahead of Torres, Blair ... just about any female athlete really, and most of the men too. Six medals spread out over four Olympics, including the biggies in the most challenging discipline.

 

If not for the 1980 boycott, this guy would be in the conversation ...



Didn't Edwin Moses have something like a decade-long winning streak?

 

Plaschke was interviewed on the radio about this the other day. He narrowed it to Phelps and Lewis, then went with Lewis.
On Phelps, he said swimming is swimming.
He gave it to Lewis because Lewis did two different things.
I think he negated his own argument. Lewis runs fast in one event. Lewis runs fast and finishes with a jump in another event. To me, that's not much different than a swimmer changing from freestyle to butterfly to breaststroke.
Oh well, I hate these "greatest" arguments ... Russell-Chamberlain ... Magic-Bird ... Mantle-Mays-Snider. Yawn.

 

He also wasn't allowed to accept money back then for the Olympics, unlike today. So he had to pursue whatever opportunities, limited as they were due to his race, so he could to support himself, including running against horses.

Even if there had been another Olympics in '40, he wouldn't have remained eligible, since it was just for amateurs.

 

The logical choice.

 

"Swimming is swimming?" Really?
There's a huge difference between swimming 200 meters of freestyle and 200 meters of butterfly. The track equivalent would be sprinting 400 meters normally, then doing it while carrying a 50-pound weight on your back.
It's another big leap from there to the 400 meter individual medley (the toughest race in swimming).
Bad argument by Plaschke.