The Answer is – Probably. In his last two Olympics he has won 14 Gold medals, five more than the closest competition. At the age of 23 he has 16 medals combined, just three shy of the Olympic record for medals won. If hardware is the criteria for greatness than Phelps can easily be considered the top of the mountain, pick of the litter or (more appropriately) the crème de la crème.
Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever!
Wait one minute, let me be the devil’s advocate here.
Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympic Swimmer ever!
How can one compare what someone does in the swimming pool to what another does on the tennis table or court, or the basketball court, the gymnasium or above water as opposed to in water. To swim in the Olympics allows multiple opportunities to win medals of any kind, as well as gymnastics and track and field. A basketball player or futbol player, fencer, sailor, weight lifter, etc and etc. does not have the gold medal chances that an elite swimmer has.
Aladar Gerevich was a member of the Hungarian sabre team that won gold in six straight Olympics. (1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960) A feat that could have been much more astonishing if the Second World War had not put the Olympics on pause in 1940 and 1944. Gerevich had also won an individual gold in 1948 for sabre. With the six Olympics that Gerevich participated, despite winning 10 medals had only the opportunity to win 18 medals. It is very possible to think that he was denied two if not three and maybe even four gold medals. Something also must be said for consistency. 28 years, Gerevich served as a member of a team that dominated the sport of fencing. In 1960, at the age of 50 he was considered by his own team too old to compete in the Rome Olympics but he challenged each member of the Hungarian squad to individual matches and defeated all of them. In 1960 he was defeated by one single touch, keeping him away from his second individual gold.
Birgit Fischer-Scmidt won 8 gold medals spanning from 1980 to 2004. First as representative for East Germany in the 1980 and 1988 Olympics then as a representative for a united Germany in 1992 thru 2004. Fischer won her 8 gold medals in 6 different canoeing events. It is possible to suggest that if the East Germans had not boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles Birgit might have won three more gold medals. She is the youngest canoeing champion at 18 as well as the oldest at the young age of 42.
Alfred Oerter won 4 straight gold medals in this discus throw. He along with Carl Lewis and Paul Elvstrom are the only athletes to compete in an event and win in four consecutive Olympics. Lewis won in the long jump and Elvstrom in sailing. Oerter, consistently plagued by injuries was never a favorite to win any of his medals. He competed in an Olympics shortly after an involvement in a car crash that nearly killed him. In 1968, at the top of his sport he stepped away only to return 12 years later just shy of qualifying for the Olympics. Oerter once said of the Olympics that, “The Olympics are unique. There is no job, no amount of power, no money to approach the meaning of the Olympic experience.”
There are 28 people that have won more than 10 medals at the Olympics. Some athletes like Jesse Owens were robbed of winning more medals than they were capable of earning because of politics or other circumstances beyond their individual power.
Michael Phelps is still young and might go down as the greatest Olympian ever but before such a mark is set, it might be important to acknowledge the splendor of the hundreds and thousands of athletes that have done there their part to make Olympic history.
Needles to say, I am very happy for Michael Phelps and look forward to the London Olympics in 2012.
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