Phelps: Greatest Olympian or just Greatest Swimmer?

Bubka won one Olympic medal. Gold is Seoul in 1988.
He is by far the greaest pole vaulter ever but was very unlucky/bad in the Olympics.

For my money, it's Carl Lewis.
He has 9 golds -- 4 straight in the long jmp -- and lost two other virtually guaranteed golds when the US dropped the baton/passed out of the zone in the 4X100 prelims twice.

 

C. Lewis.

Too bad E. Moses could not compete in 1980.

 

There's lots of ifs here. I'd say greatest Olympian.

He can have 14 by the end of the games, and he could get more in 4 years if he doesn't retire.

Carl Lewis is the bet I've ever seen, until I saw Phelps dominate.

But I would have no problem with Lewis being the greatest. But, can Phelps sing the national anthem? We'll let Charlie Steiner decide.

 

This is a great thread because of all the possibilities with the sports that we as Americans might not consider important, but other areas of the world stand in amazement at these events.

 

If Phelps wins 2-3 more medals in four years this will be a very short thread.

I like the idea of winning golds over a long period of time.

 

The Pocket Hercules? This guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_Suleymanoglu

And don't forget Alexeyev, the Soviet SuperHeavyweight of the 70s.

At this moment, I'd say Phelps and Spitz are sort of neck and neck for Greatest Swimmer. But if Phelps wins every race he enters in these Olympics, he stands alone.

"Greatest Olympian," is a tough call until you decide the criteria. If it's total gold, then yes, Phelps is your guy. But if it's some combination of medal total and dominance and longevity, then you have to look at a lot of folks.

For the geezers among us, here's a reminder of one of the greats:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Oerter

 

Phelps has the advantage of technology and better training.
And maybe, just maybe, performance enhancing substances.
To me, what's amazing about Phelps, is that he is just hitting his stride. He's so young, he could go on for two, maybe even three Olympics after this.
If what's her name could compete at 40 or 41, Phelps could too.

And I didn't realize that Bubka only made one Olympics. Dude was the gold standard for pole vaulting.

 

Bubka's Olympic history:

1984---Soviet boycott
1988--Gold medal
1992--fails to clear height
1996--withdraws with achilles injury
2000--goes out at 18-8

 

Sirs, Madames,

Al Oerter and the case is closed. Four consecutive golds (56, 60, 64 and with his last throw with a bad neck injury 68) and he came out of his retirement (from '68 to '79) to qualify for the 1980 Olympics with the longest throw of his career and longest by anyone in the season, only to miss out because of the boycott. Had one of his gold medals destroyed when he loaned it to the producers of Golden Girl (I think), a horrible Susan Anton vehicle. (The producers wanted to make a mould of an Olympic medal and Oeter's melted like chocolate or somesuch.)

YD&OHS, etc

 

I'm with fof on this.

 

who did win a gold medal in Atlanta