it's statistics and not everyone can do it...he is #1 at his sport so nobody can take that from him. he does have the most medals in an event so that's a fact. i think the man deserves all the credit. Its just like the hype for the superbowl is always insane but who the hell cares about a badminton final or even broadcast it you know. But in this case it's all about the numbers...and having the most gold shines through having only one no matter the circumstances.
... let me guess, you're not a competitive swimmer? neither am i, but at least i realize that this is a lot harder then how you put it. amateur sport? hardly. only because the sport offers more opportunity? maybe, but so does gymnastics in National Team, All Around Individual, Individual Vault, High bar, floor, etc. What Phelp does, does not put him on top of other great olympians, but it does put him on on the top with other great olympians. Yes, the media over "sell" him to the publics eye, but hell, if he wins any more gold medals, he'll be the top best of all time only because he holds all these records and medals that no other olympian has done (including fellow swimmer) in swimming, there's free style, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststrokes, all of which michael has perfected shown in his 8 gold, and each one takes different muscles/skills to get a gold in. and to be able to defeat other atheletes who has been specially specialized in that, it makes phelps all that greater. I think to cal him overated is a bit misleading if you truly know how great of an accomplishment it is, cepally when the top 20 medals owners are mostly comprived of gymnastics and only like 2/3 are swimmers (i think i heard on t.v. somewhere, too lazy to do research) and nobody says other people are inferior to him in being an athelete, phelps showns his appreciation to going and supporting the US basketball team that only wins "one gold" at the end, who are also gets as much publicity. There's just no such thing as one great almighty athelete, its just the public views in different sports. one can say Bolt is superior to Phelps, but not in medals, but in just plain raw skills. Its not arguable since its different sports -___- In then tho, this whole publicity thing is only once every 4 year, so who cares. (same w/ gymnastics and tracks really.) where as the "one medal sports" are recognized all year long
i have to agree with Uryu, swimming all the different styles is tough, it is in no way amateur, he is 7/8 for gold along with breaking WORLD RECORDS, and the other one was breaking the Olympic Record. To be able to do that is a great accomplishment for anyone, seriously hkm if you really think swimming is so easy.... give it a try.... see how fast you can swim 50m, let alone 100m or even 200m.....
No cos in the Olympics you are competing with the best, so wining 8 gold medals shows how good he is.
the guy who did 7 be4 him could of done 8 but during his times there was no 50 meter race for him to win an 8th so Overrated? He's the best in his field but i wouldn't call anyone the best olympian of all time, maybe the winningest because others don't have the chance and they can be just a great as him in their own sport.
He definitely the best in his field, but like hadouken said is he the best Olympian? What more impressive winning 8 gold medals or on ur debut u win both the 100m and 200m taking gold and breaking the world record in them both and winning by such a huge margin. For me that is more impressive. Usain Bolt is a legend in the making
super overrated ~ he's just a good swimmer ~ and it also happens that swimming has so many medals up for grabs .. if he was the same "good" in another sport..he would only get 1 medal and he would just be one ordinary "winner" ... over-rated imo
If you called Phelp the best Olympic swimmer of all time, then he's certainly not overrated. If you called Phelp the best Olympians of all time, then he's overrated. There's a reason why Phelp broke the record for gold by only one. (hint: 17 golds possible for men swimming)
well u can rele say he is over-rated as he did win 8 golds in this olympics and broke 7 world records.
Yeah, a bit overrated, there are heaps of swimming events though. If you put like 50m sprint, 50m sprint relay, 100m sprint backwards, 150m sprint, usain bolt could be an olympian of all time
