Olympics: Univ. of Texas > Canada >> Mexico

[Zaroth]

retiring at 27? congrats. what do you do with the next 40 years of your life?

Enjoy his millions of dollars and fame for being considered one of the greatest Olympians ever?

Sounds like a miserable way to spend life...

[AdamVR4]

IPD bringing the super serial up into this thread.

[onebadmollafolla]

So brave!

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk.

[j2k4]

medal count is an arbitrary factor ascribed to various sports on a random basis. it would be like saying we're now going to give out NBA championship rings for the persons in the league with:

the most points overall
the most assists
the most rebounds
the most free-throws
etc

the titles don't mean as much when you hand them out like candy. you can't possibly expect someone to believe that winning a gold medal in swimming is equally as difficult as winning a gold medal in soccer or water polo. for that matter, if gold medals are all that counts, let's throw all the other BS sports into the olympics, and see if people feel that 5 gold medals in cup-stacking is better than 2 in greco-roman wrestling.

p.s.

i said biathlon, not decathlon. cycling is another event that doesn't hand out medals like they're going out of style. how unbalanced is it that in some sports, the top athletes go an entire career just for a shot at 1 gold---while in swimming, we wag our finger at people who come home with less than 2 per olympics. it's not just swimming (gymnastics, track & field, and a few other sports are pretty liberal with medals too), but the skill/training required to medal multiple times in swimming is so much of an overlap that it dwarfs everything else; you master one stroke, you can probably master them all.

you hear TONS about michael phelps...and yet kim rhode's amazingly spectacular gold-medal performance barely made a blip on the radar.

So now they're handing medals out like "candy"?

Also, I know you said "Biathlon", which suited your comparison just fine - I used "Decathlon" because it suited mine.

To do even better with your example, getting back to Sebastian Coe's statement, you would have tremendous difficulty making the case that Michael Phelps is quite the athlete Daley Thompson was - but if the context is "Greatest Olympian"?

What then?

I agree that water polo is probably the most grueling of all Olympic sports.

Is one medal in that sport sufficient to put Phelps in the shade?

Or Daley Thompson?

[IPD]

Enjoy his millions of dollars and fame for being considered one of the greatest Olympians ever?

Sounds like a miserable way to spend life...

fame, yes. millions of dollars, not really.

the only olympians really earning that much are the guys from the NBA. and the fame will fade for phelps like it did for spitz.

[HilbillyHomeboy]

one of the discussions i was listening to today was a debate on phelps being the greatest olympian of all time. phelps is great, no doubt...but i wouldn't call him greatest of all time. just because a good swimmer can clear 8 medals in 1 olympics (an impressive feat) doesn't mean that he's automatically superior to a biathlete who can only claim 1.

i have much more respect for athletes who are competing in their 40's--and winning. retiring at 27? congrats. what do you do with the next 40 years of your life?

He is, by far, the greatest Olympian. That record he eclipsed has been standing for 50 years. Don't confuse Olympian with athlete.

medal count is an arbitrary factor ascribed to various sports on a random basis. it would be like saying we're now going to give out NBA championship rings for the persons in the league with:

the most points overall
the most assists
the most rebounds
the most free-throws
etc

the titles don't mean as much when you hand them out like candy. you can't possibly expect someone to believe that winning a gold medal in swimming is equally as difficult as winning a gold medal in soccer or water polo. for that matter, if gold medals are all that counts, let's throw all the other BS sports into the olympics, and see if people feel that 5 gold medals in cup-stacking is better than 2 in greco-roman wrestling.

p.s.

i said biathlon, not decathlon. cycling is another event that doesn't hand out medals like they're going out of style. how unbalanced is it that in some sports, the top athletes go an entire career just for a shot at 1 gold---while in swimming, we wag our finger at people who come home with less than 2 per olympics. it's not just swimming (gymnastics, track & field, and a few other sports are pretty liberal with medals too), but the skill/training required to medal multiple times in swimming is so much of an overlap that it dwarfs everything else; you master one stroke, you can probably master them all.

you hear TONS about michael phelps...and yet kim rhode's amazingly spectacular gold-medal performance barely made a blip on the radar.

Hand them out like candy? Arbitrary and random? Wat? Please direct me to the line for free gold medals.

Comparing skeet shooting to swimming is absurd. A swimmer has maybe 15 years until they are out of their league. Shooting a gun requires no physical prowess, relatively speaking. As long as the reflexes don't fade, someone could theoretically compete in that sport for decades upon decades.

fame, yes. millions of dollars, not really.

the only olympians really earning that much are the guys from the NBA. and the fame will fade for phelps like it did for spitz.

It's called endorsements. Phelps has plenty, and that won't be changing anytime soon. I'm sure he'll be highly sought after for coaching as well. He'll never have a financial worry.

Jeremy

[UTRacerX9]

Agent: Phelps could earn $100 million over lifetime - Olympics - ESPN

This article was from 2008, and before he won big in Beijing... he was ALREADY making 5 mil a year.

Peanuts, really.

[AdamVR4]

Phelps is the shit and I'm so happy he beat that d-bag Lochte.

[j2k4]

...that d-bag Lochte.

??