During a hectic a.m., just a link to today's SN column, which leads with a defense of Usain Bolt as not only NOT a crass showboater, but -- quite the opposite -- the embodiment of the Olympic ideal.
More later. -- D.S.
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Dan, I know this is a day late, but I agree with you regarding Michael Phelps. Yes, his accomplishments are remarkable, and as far as we can tell, he's done it "by the books". But, no, he's not the G.O.A.T. Last night on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", KO noted the accomplishments of Jim Thorpe, nearly 100 years ago. I had known he competed in the decathlon (and won)in 1912, but I didn't know that he also competed in the pentathlon in the same Olympiad. In addition, he played football and baseball, and did both well. Phelps may be the greatest in what he does, but until he runs the 100 meters in under 10 seconds, I think that Jim Thorpe continues to be the greatest athlete of the last 150 years.
What Jim Thorpe did was remarkable but I have a problem with giving the greatest Olympian of all time to someone who never had to compete with the world watching or under intense pressure (I'm guessing there wasn't 24 hour coverage of his every move or whole news stories about what he ate for breakfast). Jim Thorpe never performed knowing his every move was being watched by a billion people. No one knows how that pressure would have affected those athletes back than. The greatest Olympian of all time has to be Jesse Owens, 4 Gold Medals and he did it on Hitler's turf. The man like Thorpe was head and shoulders above his peers. I know Owens didn't do it with a billion people watching but he did it with Hitler watching and that has to equal the same amount of pressure as a billion and add an extra billion on top of that because not only was he watching but he did it in Hitler's building.
But instead of arguing the greatest Olympian ever, I think the more intriguing argument is who is the greatest athlete to ever compete at the Olympics. This takes away a lot of the swimmers and track and field athletes out of it. This adds boxers like Sugar Ray Leonard and players on the Dream team such as Jordan and Magic.
Top Olympians
1.) Jesse Owens
2.) Carl Lewis
3.) Michael Phelps
4.) Mark Spitz
5.) Usain Bolt (gotta give it to the fastest man ever)
Top Athletes at the Olympics
1.) Michael Jordan
2.) Magic Johnson
3.) Jesse Owens
4.) Sugar Ray
5.) LBJ/Kobe
Best thing about this list is no f'ing horses on this greatest athletes of all time. Sorry I know they compete in some equestrian events but I challenge anyone to name me the top 5 equestrian horses of all time without using google or wiki.
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