Greatest Olympian Ever?

[Letters]

Who is it?

Steve Redgrave has to be a strong shout - to win gold in 5 consecutive games in an aerobic event is astonishing.

Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson had pretty impressive periods of dominance in their eras.

Who else?

[Xhaka Can’t]

Steven Bradbury.

/thread.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Jesse Owens? Depending if you attach a story to great sporting achievement too.

Bolt has probably transcended the sport/event though, so perhaps him.

Phelps should be considered though, if not agreed upon.

[Letters]

Was having the Phelps debate with...someone on FB. Someone who is on here but I can't remember who he is on here.
I don't buy Phelps. He won a shed load of medals simply because he was the best swimmer around and there are quite a few similar events so if you're the fastest swimmer you've got a pretty good chance of winning all of them as Thorpe and Spitz did in their time.

Were there a 90m, a 110m, a 120m etc then Bolt would win all those too - that doesn't make him any better it just gives him more opportunities to win medals.

Bolt's a decent shout because he's done things I never thought I'd see in my lifetime but he's got to do the business at this Olympics and the next one IMO to underline the all time great status.

[Xhaka Can’t]

They should run the 100m backwards like they do with swimming.

I'd pay £2012 to watch Bolt do that.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Gunnersmith as he was on here.

And I dunno, there is a lot of obfuscation with swimming because of the sports nature, being in water. Unlike field athletics where you can see everything and every process they are going through. I don't think there is a huge amount of similarity between the butterfly and the backstroke for example but you can't see everything that they are doing. Swimming does have the same ethos in every single event though - go as fast as possible.

There won't be that amount of variation in field athletics because it has a ring to go around, swimming only has a 50m length and you have to turn back. Bolt could theoretically go for 400m but it is very tough to train for - so does that count against him or for him?

I think there are too many variables to compare sports for this personally (for those generally accepted in this discussion!). A different criteria needs to be considered, I think.

[Marc Overmars]

Bolt. For the reasons Maccy stated. Anyone who can transcend a sport deserves to be talked about as one of, if not the greatest in their field.

[The Wengerbabies]

Ryan Giggs

[GP]

David Beckham

[Xhaka Can’t]

Incontrovertible proof.