OT: Michael Phelps

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Posted By: Peter_Spaeth

Jackie Joyner-Kersee has to be on any short list. Medals in four Olympics, silver-gold-gold in the heptathlon, and a long jump gold.

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Posted By: Robert Klevens

Guo Jingjing gets my vote!

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Posted By: DMcD

Right on, Anthony!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

No doubt Phelps is a fine athlete, but a team of 13 basketball players wins one Gold Medal while a swimmer can win 9. So comparing cross sport individual medal counts is often comparing apples with oranges. Even a straight medal comparison between swimming and track doesn't work, as there will never ever ever be a runner who wins the 100 meters and 1500, much less the 100 meters and 10k. We could someday see a 100m winner also win the 400 meters, but that's as far as it will stretch.

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Posted By: Anonymous

To some extent I agree with David, but then again it's not like all the events are the SAME in swimming. Phelps, competing for the most part against guys who focused on one stroke or even one race, won not only in two different strokes but also in an individual medley swimming all four strokes. That is a pretty wide ranging accomplishment, maybe not the equivalent of winning the 100 and 800, but maybe not that far from it either.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

That it hasn't been done before in swimming says it's a feat. No doubt the mere act of swimming that many events, even if the same event, takes its toll, especially when competing against specialists. Thought it isn't coincidence that the second most single athlete medals ever in a single Olympics (Spits) was also in swimming. There's something(s) about the swimming events, that is conducive to winning many medals. Rafael Nadal couldn't win 8 medals, as there aren't 8 tennis events, women's and men's combined.

I'm a Heiden fan, but even I am aware speed skating isn't as popular a sport as basketball or soccer or track-- so it's hard to compare the accomplishments one-on-one. I'm sure Michael Jordan didn't seriously consider speed skating before choosing basketball .... Though Americans should also realize that a sport obscure in the US doesn't make it obscure in other countries. My dad worked in Trondheim Norway one winter, and he said residents cross country skied to work and school. Likely 100% of able bodied Norwegians cross country ski. Being the fastest known cross country skier in Michael Jordan's North Carolina might not signify much. But being being picked out as the fastest in the little country of Norway means something, as you beat out a few million skiers.

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Posted By: Brian Lindholme

I'm pretty sure this Rookie Card of Michael Phelps ends the argument. It's obvious that he's the best swimmer...