To all the people calling swimming a niche sport, I'm pretty sure there were a lot more kids in my swimming summer leagues than there were in any local running programs. If there were any local running programs.
Same. At my country club, there's a ton of swimmers and even a world class fencer.
I think some of the workers might run during their free time, and pretty sure chef plays "hoops"
To all the people calling swimming a niche sport, I'm pretty sure there were a lot more kids in my swimming summer leagues than there were in any local running programs. If there were any local running programs.
Oh Really? but at some point everyone in school lines up and races each other at some point whether it be gym class, recess or suicides during soccer practice. How much swimming talent goes between the cracks because no one ever bothers to try racing it? Poor comparison.
It's a good comparison. The comparison is between people who actually take up a sport, not run a race once in gym class.
"History's best athlete" is quite the subjective title, especially when comparing individuals across sports. One problem is that there isn't even a consensus within the swimming community on Phelps being the best swimmer ever, or with Jordan in basketball, or Ali in boxing, or Bolt as a sprinter, or Kipchoge as a marathon runner. Sure, those guys are widely considered the best in their respective disciplines but it's certainly not unanimous.
The second problem is with how any one person defines what it means to be an athlete, which qualities an athlete must possess and how exactly to weigh the importance of certain qualities against others. Hand-eye coordination, mental fortitude and skill have been mentioned as "athletic" traits that a genuine "history's best athlete" must possess. Well, golfers and video gamers possess those "athletic" traits but many people don't consider them to even be athletes!
Imagine a guy who is one of the greatest NFL players of his time.
Oh, and he also played major league baseball, on a championship team.
Oh, and he ALSO was a dominant basketball player on a barnstorming team, AND was a championship level ballroom dancer.
Just for good measure, he won the decathlon and the pentathlon in the same olympics, dominating the competition in a way that no other decathlete has done since.
And he won the last event of the decathlon running in 2 misfit shoes that he found in a trashcan because someone had stolen his shoes.
Dwight Eisenhower, who competed against him in football, said "He could do everything anybody else could do and do it better.”
Let him watch swimming for a week, then throw him in the swimming pool against Michael Phelps, and he'd have a shot at beating him. Put him in the ring against Rocky Marciano, there's no chance that Rocky walks out conscious.
Everyone else is just competing for 2nd greatest athlete in history.
To be great at swimming, in addition to the right genes and hard work you need regular, year round access to a pool, a private coach or instructor starting at a very young age. These factors alone will exclude the majority of the world's population.
Rowdy Gaines started swimming competitively in his senior year in high school. A year later, he won a scholarship to swim at Auburn.
Having said that, more people have tried sprinting than any other sport, and it's not even close. Most people had their sprinting speed measured at some point in their school life, and if they had world class talent, they entered some kind of competition.
It is extremely hard for any world class spring talent to be unrecognized, which we cannot say about any other sports.
Jim Ryun 3:55.3, set winning the 1965 AAU Championship race ahead of Olympic gold medalist and former WR holder Peter Snell, was a high school record that stood for 36 years!
An athlete who never won a single global championship is most definitely not the greatest athlete of all time.
I will say he is probably more dominant in his sport than some of the other names mentioned, however I won’t go as far as calling him the greatest athlete.
An athlete posses many skills such as, speed, strength, endurance, agility, hand eye coordination, mental fortitude, skill. To me the greatest athlete would have high levels in all of these things and not just a few. The greatest athlete can be thrown into pretty much any physical challenge and do well.
Honestly the greatest Athlete is probably someone who is not even the best at their sport, but is really good and would also be really good in other sports.
Tl;Dr Michael Phelps is a great athlete, but being the best at one sport doesn’t make you the greatest athlete ever. definitely the best swimmer of all time though
So are you saying someone like Danny Ainge should be considered one of the greatest athletes of all time?
I think he was the only person to be a high school All-American in football, basketball, and baseball. He made the major leagues in baseball when he was only about 20 years old. He was an All-Star in the NBA. Two time NBA Champion. College basketball player of the year and won the Wooden Award.
You get together with anyone and everyone on the list. Then, you are NOT told what sport you will be competing in. Without that specific information, you start to pick teams. You've got first pick. Who you got?
yea by that metric it's Bo Jackson or Herschel Walker or Deion or somebody like Charlie Ward and yes, even Danny Ainge. I'm not sure the other people in the first sentence are overall better in a given ball sport than Danny Ainge.
Imagine a guy who is one of the greatest NFL players of his time.
Oh, and he also played major league baseball, on a championship team.
Oh, and he ALSO was a dominant basketball player on a barnstorming team, AND was a championship level ballroom dancer.
Just for good measure, he won the decathlon and the pentathlon in the same olympics, dominating the competition in a way that no other decathlete has done since.
And he won the last event of the decathlon running in 2 misfit shoes that he found in a trashcan because someone had stolen his shoes.
Dwight Eisenhower, who competed against him in football, said "He could do everything anybody else could do and do it better.”
Let him watch swimming for a week, then throw him in the swimming pool against Michael Phelps, and he'd have a shot at beating him. Put him in the ring against Rocky Marciano, there's no chance that Rocky walks out conscious.
Everyone else is just competing for 2nd greatest athlete in history.
I'm talking most dominant in their sport. I thought that was obvious, given my OP.
One problem is that there isn't even a consensus within the swimming community on Phelps being the best swimmer ever, or with Jordan in basketball, or Ali in boxing, or Bolt as a sprinter, or Kipchoge as a marathon runner. Sure, those guys are widely considered the best in their respective disciplines but it's certainly not unanimous.
It's not unanimous that Kipchoge is the greatest marathoner?
he's not even the best swimmer though. The best swimmer is the most dominant and/or WR holder in the 100m freestyle
So the best swimmer is either David Popovici, Caleb Dressel, or Cesar Cielo. Depending on how you look at it. Cielo's is a super suit record but his performance solid.
Also Matt Biondi at one point had like 15 of the worlds top 20 100m free times, so he is also on the list.
Individual medley swimmers are the best swimmers. You obviously are ignorant about swimming.