Is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever?

When athletics have running backwards, skipping and hopping as well as free running ans separate disciplines and as medley relays, you can then compare swimming and athletics. The greatest athletes are decathlon, pentathlon and triathlon competitors because of the different sports in which they compete. Maybe there should be medals for each discipline and one for overall as in gymnastics.

I agree with sheek. Furthermore with swimming they have made up a stroke butterfly. Who swims that in real life? Athletics should be able to add entries like jumping and skipping and hop scotch over 100, 200 and 400 metres. Also swimming does not have the greatest participation like athletics.

I would be extremely cautious about calling Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever. The most prolific gold medal winner - yes. The greatest swimmer ever - perhaps. But I baulk at calling him the greatest Olympian ever, or greatest athlete ever. Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals, & set a world record in 7 of those events. Also, bear in mind, 3 were team relay gold medals. He obviously has a capacity for a huge amount of work, & goes flat-chat every time he competes. Very admirable indeed. But Phelps enjoys something athletes in other sports don't have, & certainly champions from the past were denied - OPPORTUNITY! It seems Phelps can win a gold medal every second event he enters a race. In actual fact, his 8 gold medals comprise 50 percent of the mens pool swimming program. FIFTY PERCENT! Imagine if an athlete could enter & be reasonably guaranteed success in 50 percent of the track & field events, that's one-half of 24 events - 12 gold medals! Or 50 percent of just the track running/hurdling medals - that's 6.5 gold medals out of 13. Why can't an athlete also compete in a 4x200m relay? Or a 110m hurdles, 100m, 400m, 1500 relay? Or a team decathlon medal? Or apart from winning the individual & team gold medals for the decathlon, pick up individual gold medals for each discipline they win? That's a possible 12 gold medals from one event - 10 individual, one individual allround, one team allround. Ditto the Heptathlon. They do this in the men & women's gymnastics, why not the decathlon & heptathlon? Emma Snowsill won one gold medal in the women's triathlon. Why not a possible five? One for the individual win (which she achieved), another for the team (Emma Moffat got bronze) & one for coming first in each discipline - swimming, bike & running? In 1972 Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals. Had the 50m freestyle been available to him back then, he probably would have got the 8, which means Phelps at best would have only been able to emulate him, not beat his record. Now let's look at Dawn Fraser. In 1956 in Melbourne, Fraser won the 100m freestyle & 4x200m freestyle relay. She got second in the 400m freestyle. She won further gold medals in the 100m freestyle in 1960 & 1964. But in 1956, there was NO women's 50m freestyle, NO 200m freestyle, NO 100m butterfly, NO 4x100m freestyle relay or NO 4x100m medley relay. Fraser was individually so strong, & the Australian womens team so strong in 1956, that had she swum a 2008 program, she probably would have won 7 gold medals at the one meet. Then in 1960, again had she swum a 2008 program, she would have won the 50m & 100m freestyles, either the 200m freestyle or 100m butterfly, & maybe one or two of the relays. That's another 4-5 gold medals. Then in 1964, again swimming a 2008 program, she woiuld have been unbeatable at 50m & 100m freestyle, & perhaps another event, individual or team. Over 3 Olympics Fraser could have won 13 to 15 gold medals, had she been able to swim a 2008 program. So you see, as good as Phelps is, his greatest advantage over other athletes from other sports & other time periods is - OPPORTUNITY. As some wit will always remind us from time to time, stats are like the bikini - they reveal most things, but the most important parts remain hidden. Good on Phelps, but let's not get carried away by the numbers racket.

Sorry - Redgrave all day. He's a pom so it pains me to say it. 5 gold at 5 olympics is a sport that poo's all over swimming as far a physical demands go - he is also amazingly humble and still to this day says his pair partner, Matthew Pinset, is a better rower than him.

Excellent question Longevity in an event has to be a factor Context another factor Paavo Nurmi - 9 gold over three Olympics in 5 different events, Al Oerter - 4 gold over 4 Olympics in discus, Jesse Owens - four gold medals at 1936 Olympics in the face of "Aryan Supremacy"

and i forgot to mention that Phelps had to swim semi-finals for many of his event adding to the complexity and endurance of his program. Someone can probably confirm how i understand he swam every morning and evening session of the entire swimming championship. 'Un-heard-of' As a footnote - the SMH is asking today "how do Phelps and Bolt stand up" for the greatest athlete of the games. The answer is they DON'T. One has won on gold (one WR) the other 8 and 8.

Jason This is a no-brainer. Absolutely! He is the greatest Olympian of all time. 8 gold medals with 8 world records in the most competitive swimming championships ever (plus the swag of medals he got in Atherns) means he is the greatest. He also got his medals swimming medley, fly and freestyle demonstrating his all round brilliance. Please do not put Perkins in the same sentence as greatest Olympians ever - especially when you leave off Redgrave who won 5 gold medals over 5 Olympics. Carl Lewis positive drug test prior to his last Olympics will always tarnish his record. Dawn - well she was awesome but i think when you stack her against Phelps then there is no comparison