Final round - More impressive Olympics: Bolt or Phelps

[JWizmentality]

It might not be over, there are whispers that Bolt could be running the anchor leg of the 4X400, to see if he could run down Wariner. US should have the 4X400 in the bag, but I'd still pizz my pants if I knew Bolt was tailing me. I'd put him in for the psychological game alone.

[JWizmentality]

Hey, I know I'm extremely biased, but even now I have to admit that ya'll are selling Phelps accomplishments way too short. Way to represent USA


On a more comical note, Bolt passed the baton to Powell and jogged to finish line beating the lane 8 team. ............Yes I'm looking at you Netherlands , that nucking futs...and extremely embarrassing.

[The Duke]

I highly doubt Bolt runs in the4x400. The Americans have a STRONG team, and will likely challenge for the world record. Cant see Bolt competing in this event this year

[hype_2004]

Bolt due to the fact that in swimming records and time are much easily eclipse from evolving pools, water condition and swim suits while track only the hardness of the surface and the allowable wind that contribute to fast times, also many parts off the world do not have access to Olympic sized pools while many if not all parts of the planet have some sort of track and field surfaces accessible to the population so in all probability Bolt is the fastest man on the planet wile Phelps might inconceivably not even win a few of his gold medals if some kid his age had access to a swimming pool in some obscure parts of Europe, Asia and South America.

[hype_2004]

I highly doubt Bolt runs in the4x400. The Americans have a STRONG team, and will likely challenge for the world record. Cant see Bolt competing in this event this year

I want to see Jamaica insert Bolt as a surpised lead off or anchor leg in the 4 x 400 relay, I think hes on a very emotional high and that vould propel him to beat anyone the Americans put in front of him, yes even Lashawn Merritt, whom Bolt has beaten a few times during their junior years internationally, Bolt was amongst the best up and coming 400 meter runner in the world(with an astounding PB of 45.30 @ the age of 17 years, he stopped running the event after HS) prior to switching to 200 and more recently 100 full-time.

[rpa]

Prestige aside, I personally take Phelps and I don't think it's all that close to be honest. The one thing people seem to overlook about what Phelps did is all the qualifying rounds he had to go through and the lack of rest he had. There were times that Phelps had races (including finals) some 30-45 minutes apart from 1 another. Did Bolt ever have to race more than once in any single day?

The difference to me is that while they both dominated over their competition, Phelps did so at times under exhaustion (whereas most of his competition was fresh) whereas Bolt only raced fresh.

[hype_2004]

It might not be over, there are whispers that Bolt could be running the anchor leg of the 4X400, to see if he could run down Wariner. US should have the 4X400 in the bag, but I'd still pizz my pants if I knew Bolt was tailing me. I'd put him in for the psychological game alone.

Damn the Jamaican delegation should just encourage Bolt to do just that just to play around the Americans heads, Bolt is just a kid and he was the best junior 400 meter runner in the world prior to switching to the shorter sprints, I think the kid is all hyped up and with nothing to lose by running a 400 meter leg I really fell that the Jamaican squad can really put the pressure on the US by inserting Bolt on either the first or last leg in the 400 meter relay. This could very well be the highlight of the Olympics seeing Bolt run down Merritt or Wariner from behind and establish himself as the fastest runner on all 3 sprinting events, lol.

[Joker]

I really hate the fallacious argument of "Let's see Bolt also capture gold in the 110 m hurdles, 400 m, long jump, triple jump, and 4x400 m relay."

Has there been a track and field athlete in modern times that has competed in more than 4 events, much less 8? I can only think of Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens competing in 4 events; I can't think of anyone in athletics who's competed in more than 4 at one Olympics. The combination of events Phelps competed in was at least plausible. Any great freestyle/butterfly swimmer could go and compete in 7-10 events. They wouldn't necessarily win any of them, but it would at least be plausible to compete in all of them. Nobody is competing in 8 athletics Olympic events--that will never be accomplished.

[shawngoat23]

Phelps' resume is more impressive, and I would kill to be him.

But as I've been saying all along, Bolt's performance is more impressive, as he's been winning in dominating fashion in the most prestigious events the Olympics have to offer. What a pimp.

[shawngoat23]

Jamaica dominates the 100 and 200 events, but there's no way that the Jamaicans mounts even a challenge to the Americans in 400, even if Bolt goes superhuman and breaks Michael Johnson's WR in his leg of the relay. Merritt, Wariner, and Neville are the three top 400 m runners in the world, and Jamaica has nothing on that, Bolt or not Bolt.

Plus, 3-for-3 in both golds and WRs has a nice ring to it. Don't mess it up, Usain.

[TheGlyde]

On a more comical note, Bolt passed the baton to Powell and jogged to finish line beating the lane 8 team. ............Yes I'm looking at you Netherlands , that nucking futs...and extremely embarrassing.

I believe Bolt may actually be lucky he didn't get them DQ'd

I'm not sure about the exact rule in international competition, but I have seen a team get disqualified in a local meet before for the 3rd runner crossing the finish line before the race was finished, as it messed up the electronic timing.

In 2001, the Aussie womens swimming relay team was disqualified for jumping into the pool to celebrate before the last team had finished, so its a similar premise.

I think what saved Bolts skin, was that the Netherlands were disqualified, as they blew their 2nd change, stood around for about 5 seconds, and then decided to run again.

Had it been a legitimate slow time and not a DQ, Bolt may have really put his foot in it and cost them gold and a WR.

That said, maybe its not against the rules in International competition, I'm not sure, I tried to search online for it but couldn't find anything concrete.

[tracey_nice]

Bolt should just run the 1600 for Jamaica

[canoner]

Saw the 4x100. Amazing, they SMOKED the old record which has been held for 15 years by .3 sec.

All of these were done without the help of gimmick equipments. Bolt is by far more impressive in my opinion. He may just had the most impressive single olympic game by any individual in the history.

[5DOM]

On a more comical note, Bolt passed the baton to Powell and jogged to finish line beating the lane 8 team. ............Yes I'm looking at you Netherlands , that nucking futs...and extremely embarrassing.

I believe Bolt may actually be lucky he didn't get them DQ'd

I'm not sure about the exact rule in international competition, but I have seen a team get disqualified in a local meet before for the 3rd runner crossing the finish line before the race was finished, as it messed up the electronic timing.

In 2001, the Aussie womens swimming relay team was disqualified for jumping into the pool to celebrate before the last team had finished, so its a similar premise.

I think what saved Bolts skin, was that the Netherlands were disqualified, as they blew their 2nd change, stood around for about 5 seconds, and then decided to run again.

Had it been a legitimate slow time and not a DQ, Bolt may have really put his foot in it and cost them gold and a WR.

That said, maybe its not against the rules in International competition, I'm not sure, I tried to search online for it but couldn't find anything concrete.

if Bolt and the Jamaicans got DQ'd for that, I think it would have been even more legendary.

[nesta]

I considered Jesse Owens to be greater than Spitz so Bolt is better than Phelps. Bolt didn't struggle at all with any of his races unlike Phelps who got very lucky twice. Bolt has the greatest single olympics of all time while Phelps is still the greatest olympian of all time(2 dominating swimming performances).

[snapcracklepape]

Gotta go with Bolt. What he did was just head and shoulders more unreal than what Phelps did.

[Doctor MJ]

I really hate the fallacious argument of "Let's see Bolt also capture gold in the 110 m hurdles, 400 m, long jump, triple jump, and 4x400 m relay."

Has there been a track and field athlete in modern times that has competed in more than 4 events, much less 8? I can only think of Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens competing in 4 events; I can't think of anyone in athletics who's competed in more than 4 at one Olympics. The combination of events Phelps competed in was at least plausible. Any great freestyle/butterfly swimmer could go and compete in 7-10 events. They wouldn't necessarily win any of them, but it would at least be plausible to compete in all of them. Nobody is competing in 8 athletics Olympic events--that will never be accomplished.

If anyone literally said that Bolt needed to win all those events to equal Phelps, they're being absurd. However, what I and other did say was that the existence of what Lewis and Owens did should temper the enthusiasm on Bolt relative to a guy who actually is maximizing what his sport has to offer like Lewis and Owens did.

However, in my final assessment, I go with Bolt. After 1 event, Phelps > Bolt, and it wasn't close. After 2 events, picking Bolt was reasonable. After 3 events, picking Bolt really seems necessary.

[Doctor MJ]

I considered Jesse Owens to be greater than Spitz so Bolt is better than Phelps. Bolt didn't struggle at all with any of his races unlike Phelps who got very lucky twice. Bolt has the greatest single olympics of all time while Phelps is still the greatest olympian of all time(2 dominating swimming performances).

If you've got a criticism of Owens, I'd like to hear it. At this point, Owens would seem pretty clearly ahead of Bolt to me.

[nesta]

I don't have anything against Owens. The way Bolt dominated the world class field amazed me. To not try in the 100M, and crush the world record is really impressive. He also broke the 200 M and 4x100 WR.

[Doctor MJ]

I don't have anything against Owens. The way Bolt dominated the world class field amazed me. To not try in the 100M, and crush the world record is really impressive. He also broke the 200 M and 4x100 WR.

Now tell me, since you're bringing up stuff beyond the actual results, which is more impressive: relaxing at the end of a race and still winning, or winning in front of a genocidal maniac who would gladly torture you to death if he got you along? I'm sorry if that seems unfair, but in terms of "style points" nothing comes close to what Owens did.

I can buy the argument that Bolt is the more impressive physical specimen though, the only tough thing there is that it is really damn impressive to win the long jump in addition to the sprints.