Incredible, but Phelps winning still tops it. The most ever. Bolt is a very close second though, he's actually Secretariat.
I think its pretty incredible Usain Bolt beat the world record by .02 seconds against the 0.9 mph headwind.. I'm also curious why swimmers are smashing WRs left and right and track&field records seem to be so much harder to break?
Screw, posting threads is hard. What the hell, I inadvertently hit Enter, and it's posted? Anyway: Bolt 100 Bolt 200 Phelps beats the Serbian Phelps relay with the anchor beating the French Nastia U.S. team gymnastics gold British chick's 1500m swim I don't know...I hate this system's poll system. FIGHT THE SYSTEM.
I like how Phelps won 8 gold but it is true he caught a couple breaks. Nonetheless he was the most consistent! However, when you talk about sheer dominance, I think Bolt was wayyy more untouchable. He never came CLOSE to losing - ever. He was toying with his competition. Phelps did too but I can count atleast 3 times when he came close to or could have lost.
*U.S. team's gymnastics medal, rather. The dudes. Maybe the chicks won one. Screw again, I was in the middle of writing it up. *commits ritual seppuku*
It's silly to say Phelps is the greatest ever, when he has way more chances to win golds...what, you want Bolt to run the 100m backwards, then on his hands?
He take his feet out his socks And put a pebble inside So even when he walks He got a rock in his stride
Trying to compare between swimming and track is pretty ridiculous. Bolt > everybody else on the field Phelps > everybody else in the pool Both are all time Olympians.
Bolt blew away the field in both races, taking one hallowed record, and made a mockery of the other. Phelps swam his ass off, and almost lost two races.
Well to be fair Phelps has so far competed in 6 more finals than him. In the races he was favored to win, he utterly dominated the competition...and that includes the race where his goggles filled up with water. Bolt breaking the world record in a headwind was pretty incredible too. I'd say they both make it look pretty easy. So for me... Top 3: Men's team beating the French in the 4x100 free by .01 sec Phelps beating Cavic in the 100 fly by .01 sec US Men's Gymnastics team winning bronze Other notables: Nastia winning Women's All around It wasn't dramatic, but Bolt winning the 100m and 200m with such ease And while it wasn't a great moment, it's probably one that will be remembered... Lolo Jones hitting the ninth hurdle and failing to medal
They are both great Olympians, but something is just bigger/ more exciting about the 100 and 200 sprints -- world's fastest man is a bigger deal than being a great swimmer.
Phelps swam 17 races in a pretty short period of time. Some came less than an hour after winning a medal. He was blowing away his own world records in several cases. Won a race with his goggles full of water, which can cost you a couple seconds. The narrow margin of victory just shows how improbable going 8/8 is, when the slightest mistake can cost you a race.
So far its been an incredible Olympics and I'm going to hold off picking one until the Olympics are over. I will put in a quick note for the Opening Ceremonies which IMO has kicked ass over every previous one.
Granted world's fastest man is much more a marquee event than world's fastest swimmer (I can't even remember who that is)...but personally I find swimming events more exciting. Probably because the events take a little longer, allowing a little extra time for the drama to build. And then it's a smaller, enclosed venue so the crowd noise can't escape (which makes the swimming events play off really well on tv).
Bolt is the world's fastest man -- Phelps can't make that claim in the pool; he doesn't even participate in the splash and dash.
