Michael Phelps is history's best athlete. Not Jordan, Ali, etc..

Swimming is a skill sport. Anyone can run.

So this title for you is a knowledge?
"Michael Phelps is history's best athlete."

Best by what? number of metallic pieces he got in some organized events?

All things considered I think Ledecky is a better swimmer/athlete than Phelps.

All things considered I think Ledecky is a better swimmer/athlete than Phelps.

A pool swimmer can't be the greatest athlete because the the sport intentionally limits greatness.

-Every inch of every race is in your own lane, they actually put multiple lane lines between two lanes to diminish the transfer of wake. There are no tactics as a result. Lame. There are no races, there is simultaneous participation.

-There is very limited environmental influence, conditions are nearly uniform, think of Garret Heath beating Kiprop, Bekele, and Farah because he's just a badass monster...never would happen in pool swimming.

If a swimmer wants to make a claim on being the GOAT, then they need to be an open water swimmer, dealing with cold, waves, wind, currents, other competitors, and passing a guy by going under him.

Anyway, Alex Honnold is the GOAT of GOATS.

Right. And he won 15 INDIVIDUAL GOLD medals in World Championships. Therefore he won a total of 28 INDIVIDUAL GOLD medals in Olympic and World Championships. Do you still disagree?

Me. I’m the greatest. I hit more home runs than most other teams in my day.

The world revolves around money. The most competitive, and therefore greatest, athletes are in baseball, basketball, soccer, football, tennis, and this pains me to say this, but golf.

Distance running has more to do personal drive and ability to handle discomfort than athleticism. Swimming is not far behind.

Phelps? If only Bolt also competed in racewalking...

Babe Ruth is the greatest athlete to ever live. I dont see anyone ever surpassing that.

Way way way on down the list there are other names. Jesse Owens, wayne gretsky, larry bird, kipchoge. But again, these ppl are way way on down the list from Ruth.

Since the OP changed it to just dominating their own sport, the clear answer is Wayne Gretzky. If you don't include his goals and only talk assists he would still be the all-time leader in points. He was the fastest player to 1000 points and the second fastest if you count how fast he went from 1001-2000. When he led the league in points it usually by large margins. In his 215 point season, second place had 141 points!

I would like to see a decathlon of sorts. It would include:

1) 100m dash.

2) 1 mile run.

3) 35 lb weight throw.

4) Some baseball skill.

5) Some basketball skill.

6) Some gymnastics skill.

7) Orienteering - set them loose far from civilization, see if they make it back.

8) Some swimming event.

9) Orienteering - set them loose in the middle of Detroit, see if they make it back.

10) A battle Royale.

Jim Thorpe would dominate (or would have.)

Why not the modern pentathlon? Those sets of skills a landed gentry would need when escaping his captors castle?

dueling (2 varieties) swim the most, run to your horse and escape yes?

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#2 Do you think Phelps could have been world class in breaststroke if he had tried? I don't think so. He was the AR holder in backstroke at one point, and the only reason he didn't swim that in the global championships was because of the schedule.

#3 How good do you think Ledecky would have been in IM if she had tried? Her time at the US Nationals would have won the bronze in the World Championships. And she was just doing it for fun. She said she wouldn't try to swim that in global championships because her schedule is too tight. Her breaststroke is mediocre, but how much could she improve if she worked hard enough? Would she have beaten Hosszu if she had focused on IM?

#5 How long do you think Sptiz would have continued to swim competitively if the sport had not been "amateur" back in his days? He was only 22 in Munich. How good would he have been in Montreal?

Michael Phelps broke his first world record when he was 15 years old

Spitz set a world record in HS as well and had a total of (10) world records at age 18

Come on, there are plenty of ice skaters and curlers who would argue.

A swimmer does not beat up her & his body suffering damage by gravity as do jumpers, runners and sprinters. Swimmers, from a very young age are able to tolerate swimming (5 to 7 1/2) miles per day. Swimmers can swim near their peak as a teenager. Truth: 100m freestyle is the glamor event in Olympic & W.C. swimming. Michael Phelps has zero gold medal swimming 100m freestyle. Stop it with Mike Phelps greatest of all times nonsense.

In 2008 leading the 4*100 he split 47.5 in the 100m free, at the time the AR

Yes super suit, but so was everyone else then. On the American side I think only held, Adrian, and Caleb have bettered this. But super suit times are kinda silly to compare directly with. Agree he wasn't too of podium great in 100m free, but he had some good splits

But he doesn't have twice as many career points as the runner up. Phelps has twice as many individual gold medals (28) as the runner up (14). If you exclude Sun Yang (a convicted doper), then the next guy is Lochte with 12.