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The Greatest Ever - Ali or Phelps?

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Tskware

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Jan 26, 2003
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ukalumni00 said:
Most Accomplished Olympic Athlete Ever- Phelps
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Usain Bolt disagrees.

Lots of people never get in a pool (me for example) much less ever even learn how to swim a butterfly or backstroke. So Phelps is incomparable in a sport at which huge percentage of people never participate.

On the other hand, there is not one person in the world who has not raced from point A to point B and Bolt is about to win three straight Olympics at 100M and 200M, an unprecedented feat that will never be surpassed.

Worlds fastest human (3 Olympics in a row!!!) >>>>>>>> World's fastest swimmer
 
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allabouttheUK

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Jan 28, 2015
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Tskware said:
Usain Bolt disagrees.

Lots of people never get in a pool (me for example) much less ever even learn how to swim a butterfly or backstroke. So Phelps is incomparable in a sport at which huge percentage of people never participate.

On the other hand, there is not one person in the world who has not raced from point A to point B and Bolt is about to win three straight Olympics at 100M and 200M, an unprecedented feat that will never be surpassed.

Worlds fastest human (3 Olympics in a row!!!) >>>>>>>> World's fastest swimmer
Click to expand...

You didn't put a lot of though into what you typed, did you? It's ok, I do it all the time.

Uneducated guess, more people can swim than can't by a large margin.

Uneducated guess, people born with no legs or inoperable legs probably can't race from point A to point B.

I get the jest of your post, and can't really disagree. So it's settled, we shall have an underwater foot race which leads straight to an underwater boxing match.
 
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herodotus6

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Tskware said:
Usain Bolt disagrees.

Lots of people never get in a pool (me for example) much less ever even learn how to swim a butterfly or backstroke. So Phelps is incomparable in a sport at which huge percentage of people never participate.

On the other hand, there is not one person in the world who has not raced from point A to point B and Bolt is about to win three straight Olympics at 100M and 200M, an unprecedented feat that will never be surpassed.

Worlds fastest human (3 Olympics in a row!!!) >>>>>>>> World's fastest swimmer
Click to expand...
So the benchmark of credibility is if we've done the sport or not. Based on that logic, I've never boxed, so Ali's sport must be for pussies.
 
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Tskware

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herodotus6 said:
So the benchmark of credibility is if we've done the sport or not. Based on that logic, I've never boxed, so Ali's sport must be for pussies.
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No you are carrying way to the extreme. Everyone agrees Phelps is on the short list of greatest Olympians ever, as is Ali. But we are talking about the absolute greatest of all time, so yes, I think being the greatest sprinter of all time, a sport which nearly every human being who ever walked has attempted at one time or the other, is a greater achievement than for example, being the greatest pole vaulter of all time, an event only a tiny fraction of the population has ever done.

Or, are we only talking about American Olympians?

[Note: Either way, Carl Lewis belongs on the short list as well]
 
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ukfan03

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I'm going with Phelps. Ali was great but Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time.
 
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kentucky_wildcat_#1

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The only thing i would ever rate Phelps better at than Ali would be swimming. It's funny how in this year's Olympics we have an athelete making a case for being the best ever at whatever sport they are competing in. I find that a lil hard to believe. Then again, with performance enhancing drugs being discovered in baseball some years ago, might explain why. I don't know how the olympics test for it. I'm sure they do a great job at testing, but still. Phelps can swim. Ali can box. The greatest ever? I have no clue. Whynot Phelps vs Jordon? That would be more recent. I would say Ali is the bigger figure out of the two, but i could be wrong on that as well.
 
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