Was Michael Phelps overrated (srs)? Not even a good freestyle swimmer......

Fastest != best, idk what’s so hard about this. You also act like he’s a bad freestyler…when you say yourself he was an Olympic gold medalist in a freestyle event. He set a plethora of world records, won more gold medals than any other athlete by far, and is undisputedly the fastest flyer of all time. He is the GOAT, plain and simple.

my two pennies wrote:

Fastest != best, idk what’s so hard about this. You also act like he’s a bad freestyler…when you say yourself he was an Olympic gold medalist in a freestyle event. He set a plethora of world records, won more gold medals than any other athlete by far, and is undisputedly the fastest flyer of all time. He is the GOAT, plain and simple.

if you threw phelps in a pool and told him to go "x" distance (by any method), he would only have been the best ONCE in his career at the olympics.

only way he was able to win so many golds was to arbitrarily swim slower (medly, butterfly etc.) or be in a stacked USA relay team.

if you aren't the fastest swimmer......are you REALLY the GOAT?

phelpsisthegoat wrote:

Considered the best swimmer of all time.

Freestyle form is the FASTEST method of swimming. If you excel in this discipline, you are the fastest i.e. "BEST" swimmer.

He only has....(checks notes)......1 freestyle individual gold.

Rest of his individual medals are the medley and butterfly (where its an arbitrarily slower method of swimming).

His relay medals are sort of a wash since the US team is totally stacked

Are we being lied to?

This has to be in contention for one of the dumbest posts ever on letsrun.

Yes...23 Gold medals; he was overrated ?!? 5 Olympics.

So who is the greatest American runner then?

Speed over 60 wrote:

Yes...23 Gold medals; he was overrated ?!? 5 Olympics.

22 of those are relays or butterfly/medly (where swimmers have to use a stroke to swim slower).

In terms of pure swimming...the swimming 99% of people are familiar with and know how to do, the most efficient method of swimming (freestyle)

he has ONE individual gold (same as Caleb Dressel)

coach wrote:

So who is the greatest American runner then?

not a hurdler that is for sure (hurdling being the track equivalent of butterfly stroke)

He set the WR at 200m twice and won a World Championship gold at the distance.

Nah, you are right. He sucks.

Luv2Run wrote:

phelpsisthegoat wrote:

Considered the best swimmer of all time.

Freestyle form is the FASTEST method of swimming. If you excel in this discipline, you are the fastest i.e. "BEST" swimmer.

He only has....(checks notes)......1 freestyle individual gold.

Rest of his individual medals are the medley and butterfly (where its an arbitrarily slower method of swimming).

His relay medals are sort of a wash since the US team is totally stacked

Are we being lied to?

This has to be in contention for one of the dumbest posts ever on letsrun.

why

lets say a swimmer wins 24 medals in backstroke over 4 olympics.

is he the goat swimmer? I would say absolutely not

DontFeedTheTroll wrote:

He set the WR at 200m twice and won a World Championship gold at the distance.

Nah, you are right. He sucks.

not saying he sucks. but there are plenty of swimmers with multiple freestyle golds (unlike phelps)

Phelps was great.

Bet you never saw him celebrating a 5th place finish heehee

5/10

Good try. 'A' for effort and determination.

I believe we are in fact being lied to. Phelps couldn't even beat a virtual shark he raced agained on that Discovery Channel special.

*against

This made me think of the different play surfaces in tennis and how a majority of Nadal’s championships are on clay. If the Big 3 all retired today, I don’t think many would say Nadal is the best because he didn’t win as much on the other surfaces.

But this is an interesting thought in regards to swimming and the freestyle stroke. I’m running we see who is the fastest period. We don’t see who can run the fastest backwards or the fastest while doing something goofy with your arms and legs.

I think the OP’s argument that Phelps was not consistently the fastest at the fastest stroke has merit.

Usain Bolt was clearly overrated, too. His only individual golds were in the 100 and 200. He never won: 400, 800, 1500, 5000, 10000, marathon, steeplechase, 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, javelin, shot put, discus, hammer throw, pole vault, high jump, long jump, or triple jump.

Totally a one trick pony. Overrated.

Does anyone know what the most prestigious event to win in swimming is?