deNIEd wrote:Doctor MJ, I would guess Phelps has that record, primarily because I doubt many athletes have ever competed in 8 events in a single year.
Golf is a sport that is more skill based than physical/athletic based. Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, etc. are also all sports that have a larger majority about skill than athletic ability.
However, a sport like track or swimming, is primarily all about physical capabilities. It doesn't matter about how skilled you are at running, the main determinant of your speed will be your athleticism. Form, pacing, technique does eventually come into play, but those are for primarily subtracting thousand's of a second off of your overall time.
Thanks for the response, but I asked about track athletes because I'm trying to triangulate how impressive Bolt's performance is. A quick says that over the past 4 Olympics, the number of world records set by Bolt equals the number of world records set by all other men combined. I see also that Carl Lewis didn't break any world records in 1984 other than his relay. Basically what it all adds up to: Short of me having a significant boost in opinion on Phelps, I'm more impressed with Bolt in these Olympics than Phelps. Bolt is just too good.
(I will just be a little petulant though and maintain it was unreasonable to rate Bolt over Phelps simply based on his performance on the 100. Had Bolt then gone and missed medals in his other two races there wouldn't be a rational soul around who'd think that overall he'd been more impressive than Phelps. But of course, it's August 23rd, and we know that didn't happen)
Your points about skill vs talent echo my thinking as well, though I don't quite agree on the sports you mention, and I think phrasing it in terms of physicality can be misleading. Every sport requires some combo of the two. Sports like golf and tennis are on the extreme skill end. They require incredible mental toughness, and forget about being the best in the world if you weren't playing them as a kid. I often refer to basketball on the other end of the spectrum because a supreme talent can pick up a ball at 18 and still make millions. A sprinting competition like the 100m is probably even more talent base. You really don't need to have much upstairs to run in a straight line (run Forrest run). Swimming on the other I'm guessing is more skill based than basketball, but still more on the talent side than the skill side.