Phelps

Yes, we've all been watching Michael Phelps win gold metals every night for the last week. He's been destroying people in half of his races, and he's been ultra-opportunistic (or ultra-lucky) in the others, and he's won every time it counted. America has, in general, been quick to declare Phelps the best Olympian ever. But is he? As usual, such a subjective claim can be difficult to pin down.

I hope no one misconstrues my remarks to imply that Phelps hasn't had an amazing set of swims. He clearly has. But when considering "best ever" sorts of declarations, the task becomes one of comparing people who have all done incredible things; they're all terrific.

Here's an article from the AP (via the Deseret News) that brings up a few reasons why Phelps may not be the greatest ever. The most significant thing I realized in reading the article is that the vast majority of the US, like myself, is quick to declare Phelps the best ever, despite knowing very little about any Olympic history further back than 20 or 30 years ago. Does anyone reading this know anything about the first 50 years of the modern Olympics? Name a single athlete who competed? Ok, now name one besides Jesse Owens.

Anyway, I would suggest that the more we might delve into Olympic history, and the more we learn about past games, we would find more and more athletes who would amaze us, and who ought to be considered in our discussions of greatness.

Finally, why do we feel compelled to pick someone as the greatest ever? Why can't they all just be great?