Only 1 other Olympian has as many total medals as he does, Larissa Latynina, of the former USSR, 1956–1964. She has 9 golds, and 18 total medals, Phelps has 14 golds and 16 total medals. I personally would put him above her in those regards, not to mention the competition is much stiffer over 50 years down the line. Name a single other Olympian whom has reached the 8 *gold* medal mark in a single set of games? You can't. Matter of fact, only 4 Olympians in the history of the Olympics have ever had more than 8 medals total, not including Phelps, and they all have 9 medals. Phelps already has 14, and is looking to increase that value 4 years from now if possible. Only a single other person holds more World Records than Phelps, and that is Mark Spitz. Phelps currently has 32 records, Spitz currently has 33 (not current records, but has set 33 total). Again, Spitz also participated in the Olympics over 40 years ago, competition is, once again, much stiffer now. He is hands down one of the greatest Olympians of all time, and his records will go down in history for quite some time, especially considering he's been the only one to break a majority of his old records.
I still can't agree with you. All that he did was swimming. He might be the greats SWIMMING Olympian. He isn't the greatest Olympian. For someone to be 'The' greatest olympian they should atleast compete in other types of events, like if phelps won the 100m, long jump stuff like that while still getting gold in swimming, then he is the greatest olympian.
I would consider the greatest olympian someone that wins somthing like a triathlon. Somthing that consists of more then just one sport
Greatest will always be an opinion right, so there is no point. By saying that it would be the winner of the decathlon? But if you match the records of each event they do, to the actual athletes in the actual event. Those decathletes wouldn't make it pass the first round. edit But that isn't a fair comparison, since they are likely not performing at their best
The point of being an Olympian is training for that SPECIFIC form of events, to be the best in the world, and potentially in history at that single spectrum. Triathlons, decathlons, etc. are not Olympic events, so your 'Olympian' title isn't even available to someone whom trains for such events, therefore the very logic that he isn't the best Olympian in the world at the moment is a fallacy. Your placing things no Olympian does (at least not at an Olympian level) nor is it an Olympian event, so therefore there isn't a single Olympian whom you feel is a great Olympian because your very logic of the word 'Olympian' doesn't even exist. Michael Phelps is hands down the best at what he does, and will soon go down in history for being the best at everything he has done throughout history. Only 1 man and 1 woman stand in his way to being the undisputed best at what he does, and they don't hold any records over him, they simple hold a higher medal count or more records broken, which I am positive will change at the next set of Olympic games should Phelps continue for 1 more set.
Now I don't even have to say anything after reading your post Skimy. Because Dementia kicked your ass through the intraweb.
