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Michael Phelps breaks 2168-year-old Olympic record with 13th individual gold medal

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F

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
s7NRZ4V.gif
 
B

Blader

Member
Maledict said:
This is what I don't understand. Why does swimming have so many ridiculous, slightly different variations that allow individual athletes to rack up such a high medal count? Athletes who are equally dominant like Bolt don't stand a chance because there aren't 10 variants of sprinting where the same basic skills can win you every race.

Not to diminish Phelps really - he's clearly the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time. But measuring best Olympian by medal count, when swimming has more medals for basically identical events, seems odd.
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I think calling different strokes just "slightly different variations" of each other, and "basically identical events," does a disservice to how much work goes into them and how different they really are from each other. Like others have said, it'd be like adding sideways running and backwards running as track events. I think the only reason anyone would even think of them like that is because Phelps dominates all strokes and makes it look fairly easy.

If it were just a case of strokes being slightly different from one another, you'd see more guys like Phelps rack up multiple golds in multiple events within the same Olympics (and then again over multiple Olympics). There's a reason why Phelps' career is such an extreme outlier.

Sephzilla said:
Is this officially Phelps last Olymics? Cuz he seriously seems like he could still be a gold medal threat in 2020
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I think so. It seemed like his main reasons for getting back into the pool after retiring post-London was: a) not being satisfied with his London performance, and b) not knowing what to do with himself out of the pool. But he's a got a fiance and a kid now, and Rio looks like it'll be an even better send off to his Olympics career than London was.
 
F

Futureman

Member
Sephzilla said:
Is this officially Phelps last Olymics? Cuz he seriously seems like he could still be a gold medal threat in 2020
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He said something like, "This is how I wanted to go out" (ie on top) during an interview after his gold last night.

Seems like this is likely his last Olympics but who knows. I doubt he even knows for sure. Isn't he already the oldest to win Olympic gold in swimming?
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Megalosaro said:
The difference is that Leonidas did mtuple different events. Phelps does the same shit, but at different distances.
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The 200m and 400m medleys require that a swimmer to be strong in all disciplines. Phelps is the easily the greatest swimmer of all time.
 
D

DaveTheSnake

Member
Sephzilla said:
Is this officially Phelps last Olymics? Cuz he seriously seems like he could still be a gold medal threat in 2020
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I really hope he comes back for 2020. To me, he has that intense competitive nature that is found in so few people. The only comparison that I could think of is Kobe.

I'm not ruling it out, even if he only comes back for the relays.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Damn, that's a long record. Congrats to Phelps.

gutter_trash said:
LOL, the conditions of 2168 years ago were way more brutal without the tech, science, medicine, footwear etc
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Ya think? xD

Also, I don't think Phelps need footwear ;)

Bitanator said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KLy-NnTD2o that race was not boring, he has been in close ones, they are anything but boring
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False premise; all swimming races are boring ;)

kmag said:
It's a pity Leonidas didn't have 10 slight variations of shield carrying to compete in.

Phelps is the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time, but swimming gets away with far too many similar events in the Olympics because of it's appeal to the US and Australia television markets (i.e they're really good at those events so it makes bank). There's just not enough requirement for specialisation needed for each event unlike other sports. It's not just Phelps there's a long line of swimmers who compete and challenge in 8-10 events, that suggests that there too much overlap between the separate events.
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That's a fair point.

ShinAmano said:
Lol at those complaining about number of swimming events to somehow try to distract from the fact that no other person alive or dead will ever be this good.
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It doesn't have to "distract" from anything. It can be both true that Phelps' record-breaking and medal streak is impressive and likely won't be surpassed for a while (maybe not 2000 years though xD), and also true that some disciplines are much harder to rack up a medal count in than others.

King_Moc said:
Why lol? People in other sports simply don't have the opportunity to compete for as many medals. Some sports are so demanding that you wouldn't even be able to. Phelps was able to win 2 golds an hour apart. Was Steve Redgrave supposed to be able to do that an hour after rowing 2000m at an olympic standard? No, it would be impossible.
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Exactly. It doesn't take away anything from Phelps' accomplishments, it just shows that a pure medal count isn't the only factor of an athlete's greatness.
 
F

freenudemacusers

Member
i should ask my friends who did collegiate swimming why they bothered practicing these 'basically the same' forms all the time. lol gaf.


USA #1
 
K

Kelsdesu

Member
Guys is in his thirties and is just as fast and strong as he was 8 years ago. His physique looks better than anybody in the pool.

I want to see blood test.
 
K

kmag

Member
Blader said:
I think calling different strokes just "slightly different variations" of each other, and "basically identical events," does a disservice to how much work goes into them and how different they really are from each other. Like others have said, it'd be like adding sideways running and backwards running as track events. I think the only reason anyone would even think of them like that is because Phelps dominates all strokes and makes it look fairly easy.

If it were just a case of strokes being slightly different from one another, you'd see more guys like Phelps rack up multiple golds in multiple events within the same Olympics (and then again over multiple Olympics). There's a reason why Phelps' career is such an extreme outlier.



I think so. It seemed like his main reasons for getting back into the pool after retiring post-London was: a) not being satisfied with his London performance, and b) not knowing what to do with himself out of the pool. But he's a got a fiance and a kid now, and Rio looks like it'll be an even better send off to his Olympics career than London was.
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No it's pretty much slight variations. Lets ignore the other strokes. If you're the best 100m freestyle swimmer in your country, you can participate in the following with that one stroke.

100m Freestyle
100m Medley
100m Relay

You can also potentially add 50m and 200m freestyles in as well because it's very common to do so, the 200m more commonly than the 50m, AND the 200m has it's own freestyle relay.

If you add in other strokes it quickly snowballs. The sport is over-represented given how many swimmers are doing 3 or more events.
 
S

sportzhead

Member
It's a little crazy to me that the most decorated swimmer in the history of the Olympics has never won a medal for being the fastest swimmer in the world. Phelps has zero 50m or 100m freestyle Olympic medals. I don't even think he does those events. What other sport can you not be the fastest or best in but still win a bunch of gold medals in one Olympic Games?
 
A

Ambient80

Member
Guardian said:
Michael defeated Leonidas's record. Wait till his grandkids hear about how awesome that sound.
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Seriously, it's like the ultimate bragging right in school.

Other kid: "My dad/granddad could beat your dad in a race!"
Phelps' kid/grandkid: "My dad/granddad is the greatest Olympian of all time."
 
M

Macleoid

Member
Maledict said:
This is what I don't understand. Why does swimming have so many ridiculous, slightly different variations that allow individual athletes to rack up such a high medal count? Athletes who are equally dominant like Bolt don't stand a chance because there aren't 10 variants of sprinting where the same basic skills can win you every race.

Not to diminish Phelps really - he's clearly the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time. But measuring best Olympian by medal count, when swimming has more medals for basically identical events, seems odd.
Click to expand...

Totally this.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
For some perspective, men's swimming events available in 1968:

Freestyle: 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 1500 m
Backstroke: 100 m, 200 m
Breaststroke: 100 m, 200 m
Butterfly: 100 m, 200 m

Individual medley: 200 m, 400 m
Freestyle relay: 4×100 m, 4×200 m
Medley relay: 4×100 m

The only swimming ones missing from back then that we have today are the 50m freestyle and the 10k marathon. So people have had 48 years with essentially the same opportunity as Phelps in terms of total events to break that 2168 year Olympic record.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Michael Phelps just won a SILVER MEDAL in the 100m butterfly race, which he shared with 2 other swimmers who did the same time, losing to a Singaporean swimmer! WHAT A SCRUB HAHA TAKE THAT USA


I'm not serious
 
D

Diprosalic

Banned
XiaNaphryz said:
The only swimming ones missing from back then that we have today are the 50m freestyle and the 10k marathon. So people have had 48 years with essentially the same opportunity as Phelps in terms of total events to break that 2168 year Olympic record.
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swimmers usually retire early because their ain't no money in swimming.
Mark Spitz won 9 gold medals in swimming and retired at 22.
 
mckmas8808

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Diprosalic said:
swimmers usually retire early because their ain't no money in swimming.
Mark Spitz won 9 gold medals in swimming and retired at 22.
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WHOA! I never knew that. Explains a lot then. Phelps is like 10 years old that Mark Spitz at this point.
 
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