We weren't meant to become obese but we have worked hard at it. That's why its so special
We weren't meant to become obese but we have worked hard at it. That's why its so special
T&F awards medals in 4 events completed in under 47 seconds. And you guys are talking about duplication of events in swimming? These events should be combined into two, tops. Probably just one.
Get real.
That's a clown's response bro. You are comparing body shapes with physical endeavors.
permission denied wrote:
T&F awards medals in 4 events completed in under 47 seconds. And you guys are talking about duplication of events in swimming? These events should be combined into two, tops. Probably just one.
Get real.
6 events under 49 seconds--at least that's how I count.
Mr. Obvious wrote:
6 events under 49 seconds--at least that's how I count.
More than that actually;
100m men
100m women
110H
100H
200 men
200 women
400 men
400 women (if Sanya's in top form)
400H men
(and Demus isn't a lot slower than that)
(and do you count jumps like swimming or like diving?)
Both sports have a lot of events that people actually care about that take ~4 minutes or less...and both sports have some events that take a lot longer that most people don't care about.
Swimming is track in the pool. Would you REALLY find the Olympics more interesting if all you had to watch was gymnastics for a week?
I was just counting men's events. I was including the 4x100 in there as well.
I personally love watching swimming, I think I am pretty firmly on record. All this trying to compare track to swimming is just silly.
That's the best argument against Phelps being the best Olympian....so far! Let's see someone refute this. It can't happen....no runner could win 8 golds medals in the same Olympics....even if they could ad the rest.
IMHO the most dominat olympic athlete of all time was Eric Heiden. He won gold at every distance from 500m to 10000, in his one and only Olympic appeareance. Never been done before and will never be done again.
I'd make the case for Sheila Taormina, as being one of the greatest Olympians ever. She competed in 4 Olympics,in 3 different sports: swimming, triathlon and modern pentathlon. She started out as a swimmer, winning a gold in the 4x200 m relay. But going from swimming to running and biking and then learning equestrian, shooting, fencing well enough to compete at Olympic level is just amazing.
ericthered wrote:
IMHO the most dominat olympic athlete of all time was Eric Heiden. He won gold at every distance from 500m to 10000, in his one and only Olympic appeareance. Never been done before and will never be done again.
+1. Unmatched accomplishment in the Olympics. What an athlete. Would have been SI Sportsman of the Year and perhaps even bettered remembered if it weren't for a certain hockey team...
Damned good thing Pro-Style wrestling isn't an Olympic sport or Nature Boy Ric Flair (16 Time World Champion) would have to give Phelps a backhand to the chest for claiming he's the best. Wooooooooooo!!
Seriously, if you think any of these panzy athletes in any sport today could take on "Mr. Digits" (known for breaking the fingers of his opponents)in the ancient Olympics when you battled until submission which could last for hours, you better think twice about who the greatest Olympian is.
In the ancient Olympics if you cheated, your name was carved in the stones that led to the competition arena and your family name was disgraced forever and your country would probably wipe all of you out in shame. That could be useful today with all of the drugging going on.
Phelps is the greatest swimmer not olympian.
At the end of the day if his events were the track equivalent he would only have the chance to medal in freestyle events. In that scenario he isn't even the greatest swimmer. In America 60% of black children cannot swim and close to 30% of white kids can't, and this is a first world nation. Every able bodied person can run. That's sums it up.
Realisto1 wrote:
6.5 billion people run, afew hundred million swim. Says it all really
It says nothing since the majority of countries in the world that produce top runners also dominate the Obesity % in the world too.
If running is so common and easy for the billions of people in the world to do, why don't you see more people tripling and quadrupling events?
8 swimming events is far harder than 2 track events, that's why only 1 man has ever gotten 8 Golds at a single Olympics.
its nice and all, but no one will ever care who wins anything over 1500m. The 5k/10k should just be run at the exact same time so you can double 14 minutes after you complete your 5k in the 10k.
Reading through these posts that article highlights the bubble a lot of people live in. Swimming in real terms is a very expensive activity and only a small proportion of the worlds population do it. Phelps is a once in a generation swimmer and has a huge accomplishment list but when your global competition is so diluted you cannot be compared to sports like track where everyone without a disabilty can run.
First ease of access to the sport makes the competition a lot harder. Soccer says hi.
Second phelps won medals in the 200,200 butterfly, 200m relay, 200m im. That is 4 events all having virtually the same duration.
Third countless swimmers have won multiple medals. Mark spitz says high. It's a non impact sport, recovery is very fast. Missy whatever her name is won gold after her semi final for another event 13min prior.
Finally track is an impact sport requiring long recovery times. Please tell me what event alberto juantorena could have added in montreal.
We might be calling Tim Duncan the greatest swimmer if not for a hurricane that wreaked the swimming center. Of course, most areas don't have a program or culture or center to be hurt to begin with.
Both sports need to pare down events.
Swimming:
50m Free
200m Free
4x50m Relay
4x200m Relay
Get rid of all the strokes other than freestyle. Get from A to B the fastest. No one cares about getting there a slower way.
No one cares about anything over 200m. It takes too long and people lose interest. Stroke, stroke, stroke, flip, stroke, stroke, stroke, flip...boring.
Track:
100m
400m
4x100 Relay
4x400 Relay
I have a good idea let's have a race that takes about 10 seconds. Hey! Let's have another one that takes 9 seconds longer. WTF?
Get rid of the 200 and just have the 100m for drop dead sprint guys. It's ridiculous to have both.
And the hurdles and steeplechase. See swimming - get there fastest. If I wanted to watch equestrian, I'd already be watching the Boring Channel.
Get rid of anything over 400m. If you have to sit back, draft off of someone, and then kick the last 50m - get rid of it. Nothing is more boring than a bunch of guys jogging in a group playing grab a$$ waiting for the last straight away to run fast. Man up, stay in your lane and do your own work.
No 1500, 5000, 10000, marathon. If you have to take a commercial break during the race because your event is so boring and when you get back from commercial break nothing has happened, get rid of it.
Smartest on Earth wrote:
Both sports need to pare down events.
Swimming:
50m Free
200m Free
4x50m Relay
4x200m Relay
Get rid of all the strokes other than freestyle. Get from A to B the fastest. No one cares about getting there a slower way.
No one cares about anything over 200m. It takes too long and people lose interest. Stroke, stroke, stroke, flip, stroke, stroke, stroke, flip...boring.
Track:
100m
400m
4x100 Relay
4x400 Relay
I have a good idea let's have a race that takes about 10 seconds. Hey! Let's have another one that takes 9 seconds longer. WTF?
Get rid of the 200 and just have the 100m for drop dead sprint guys. It's ridiculous to have both.
And the hurdles and steeplechase. See swimming - get there fastest. If I wanted to watch equestrian, I'd already be watching the Boring Channel.
Get rid of anything over 400m. If you have to sit back, draft off of someone, and then kick the last 50m - get rid of it. Nothing is more boring than a bunch of guys jogging in a group playing grab a$$ waiting for the last straight away to run fast. Man up, stay in your lane and do your own work.
No 1500, 5000, 10000, marathon. If you have to take a commercial break during the race because your event is so boring and when you get back from commercial break nothing has happened, get rid of it.
Oh Snap! Post of the Year. LOL Good stuff.
That is pretty good. Nice work.
Actually very few people (compared to the world population) train to be fast on a track, so this argument is bad ; it's not because you walk every day that you are practicing track and field.Swimming and running are both beautiful sports, why not just enjoy them instead of despising one of them?Besides, Phelps is a phenom, You keep saying that swimming 200 free or 200 medley or 200 butterfly is the same thing, but this is wrong. There are very few swimmers who could win in these different events. Most swimmers specialize.
herbaldean wrote:
Reading through these posts that article highlights the bubble a lot of people live in. Swimming in real terms is a very expensive activity and only a small proportion of the worlds population do it. Phelps is a once in a generation swimmer and has a huge accomplishment list but when your global competition is so diluted you cannot be compared to sports like track where everyone without a disabilty can run.