Is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever? (edit/delete)
Michael Phelps wins his record setting 8th Gold medal. Which poses the question is he the greatest Olympic athlete ever? This past week magic happened in Beijing, China. Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz's 36 year old record of 7 Gold medals in an Olympics. Eight golds, seven world records, 17 races over nine days, one of the greatest feats by any athlete ever!
Phelps gave everything he had and he wanted this record so badly and it showed. He even won one of the closest races ever when he edged out Milorad Cavic by .001 of a second. But what he did to reach the wall first was the stuff of legends. Apparently beaten by Milorad Cavic in the final meters, Phelps somehow squeezed in a furious final arm stroke to touch and win by one-hundredth of a second. Still-frame photos show Cavic inches from winning before Phelps made up ground and splashed in at the last instant. It was a photo finish and his record tying 7th gold medal.
To win his record setting 8th Gold medal of this Olympics he took his team from 3rd to 1st in the 400 meter medley relay. He then watched his anchorman Lezak hold off the Australians in the final leg of the race.
So to answer the question is Michael Phelps the greatest Olympic Athlete ever? That is a tough question to answer because there have been some great ones like Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis to name a few. But certainly in my mind he is the greatest swimmer ever and will go down in history as an Olympic Legend with his 14 Gold Medals total with two bronze to give him 16 metals total. The only person that holds more metals than him is Soviet Gymnast gymnast Larissa Latynina who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.
Either way the world will never forget how great of an Olympian Michael Phelps was, will his record every be broken? We will have to wait and see.
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