Changing China
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Who is the greatest Olympian? Clue: it’s not Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps is a phenomenal swimmer, possibly the best in history, and if he achieves his target of eight gold medals in Beijing, for an overall tally of 14 (10 of them individual) there is no doubt that he deserves his place in the pantheon.
But the greatest-ever Olympian? That is a big call.
There is no denying that it is tough to win an Olympic swimming gold but, once you reach that standard, there are plenty to harvest. Many of the top swimmers seem capable of racing over 100 metres, 200, 400, often in a variety of strokes, plus the medley, and also seemingly have relays for just about every distance.
In athletics it is extremely rare for a 100 metres runner to go as high as 400 and even if they could, the qualification rounds would be too draining to have any hope of adding the 200 as well.
To get on a par with swimming the Games would have to introduce the track races over 50, 150, and 250 metres (plus relays of course). They would have to get creative to match the medley, perhaps 50 metres of sprinting, 50 of hurdling and 50 of running backwards — and get three friends together and there’s another medal to shoot for.
Carl Lewis, who won nine golds, including four in a row for long jump, has a much greater claim and he would certainly give himself the vote.
In the early days of the Games the field event programme resembled modern swimming — so much so that Ray Ewry mined eight golds over three Olympics, all from his basic talent of jumping.
If we’re talking greatest overall olympian, then no discussion can be complete without mention of Clara Hughes. Two Bronze medals in cycling at the 96 summer games and one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze medals in speed skating over three summer olympics after returning to speed skating at the age of 28. The only person to have won multiple medals in both summer and winter olympics. And she’ll be back on the bike at the games in London.