THE GREATEST OLYMPIAN OF ALL-TIME?

I realize that people are caught up in “Phelps Mania” and frankly, I think we can all agree that the attention he gets is well-deserved.

He is probably the greatest swimmer any of us have ever seen (hope that doesn’t make you cry Mr. Spitz). His assault on 9 golds and the numerous amount of world records he is setting speak for themselves…..

Call me crazy though, but I’m not yet willing to crown him the greatest Olympian of all-time

There is an American athlete who won a gold medal in four different olympics. A man who won a single individual event 4 Olympics in a row. Think about that. Think about how hard it is to remain a world class athlete for that period of time.

Of course, the man I’m speaking of is Carl Lewis

1984 Gold: 100M, 4×100, Long Jump, 200M
1988 Gold: 100M, Long Jump
1988 Silver: 200M
1992 Gold: 4×100, Long Jump
1996 Gold: Long Jump

Pretty amazing in a sport where athletes peak is at most 1 or 2 Olympics. To put this into perspective, think about Michael Johnson. Easily one of the greatest American track athletes and maybe the greatest 400m runner of all-time. He could only manage 2 consecutive golds in that event.

Again, this is not to say that Phelps could not someday become the greatest Olympian. Far be it for me to say that he could not produce the same kind of results four years from now in London.

But right now, as it stands, Carl Lewis is the greatest U.S. Olympian of all-time

Carl’s singing on the other hand, well, that’s more Special Olympics.

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