At the time of writing this post, American swimmer Michael Phelps has equalled the record number of gold medals won at a single Olympics with 7, and holds the record for most golds in his career with 11. He has also set 6 world records. A win tomorrow (Sunday), will see him take over the all-time lead for golds in a single Olympics. This has raised the question: Is he the greatest ever Olympian?

American sprinter, and four-time champion Michael Johnson says not. He claims that the reason he has won so many golds is that there are so many ways to win the pool. He claims that is sprinters could run forwards, backwards and however they want, they would win similiar numbers of medals.

So who do you think is the greatest Olympian? Phelps? Carl Lewis? Jessie Owens? I would suggest British rower Steve Redgrave should be a candidate, since he won golds in 5 consecutive Olympics. What do you think?

I am going to say Phelps is the greatest Olympian in history. He does have the gold medals to support his position at the top. He is also likely to add to his numbers in London in 4 years too. The other great Olympians also did great things and are among the best. It is hard to compare the different sports so I will just use the total medals to decide.

Michael Johnson is wrong in his dismissal of Phelps place in history for a few reasons. Johnson has always felt he was the greatest Olympians just because he was Johnson. If Johnson really thinks it is easy to enter that many events and win them then he should have run in the 100, 200, 400, 1600, and all four relays and got his 8 golds in one games. And he also could have ran one or two backwards.

I want to put in a word for an athelete I learned about in grade school -- 'Babe' Didrikson, who won 2 gold medals and 1 silver in the 1932 Olympics when she was 18. She broke the current world record of the day to take the gold in the 80m hurdle race, won the javelin throw easily, and tied for the high jump to nearly get a third gold, until judges broke the tie by deciding Babe led "with her head" when going over the bar in the last jump. She was qualified to participate in the long jump and the shot put, but the rules in force at the time restricted female competitors to participation in only three events.

A couple of years ago she was named "Woman Athelete of the Millenium", also being famous for her exellence in swimming, baseball, basketball, billiards, and most famously, golfing.

I think Australians would nominate Dawn Fraser as our greatest Olyumpian.
She was a swimmer but before the days of the modern swin suits. I think technology has soemthing to do with the improvement.

I saw Spitz win in Munich as well. Perhaps lack of competition at the time might have influenced both Spitz and Phelps results.Sometimes luck plays a part. Australian men swimmers are not as good today as in the past.

Total nonsense Jokul. To win 8 medals in one Olympics, a runner would have to win the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000 and 10000 metres, or 7 of those an a marathon, or 6 of those and the two 2 relays.

For a swimmer to win 8 medals, there are much more events. 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 metres may only be 5 distances, but there is breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle. There is even the 200 and 400 metre medley races. So those 5 distances alone make up 20 seperate events, and so 20 chances to win gold. Add the medleys, that is 22. That doesn't even take into account the relays.

Johnson's point is legitimate because regardless of the manner in which a person runs, he can only win a single 200 metres gold medal. However, Michael Phelps has won 3 golds over that distance (freestyle, butterfly, free). It is simply not possible for runners to win as many medals as swimmers, because there just aren't enough events.

That is why others should be considered for Greatest Olympian. Steve Redgrave should be up there, because of his longevity. To win 5 gold medals in consecutive Olympics is a great acheivement. Carl Lewis won 7 golds, but in different disciplines. Jessie Owens had 4, also in seperate disciplines. Helice's nomination, "Babe" Didrickson, could be considered, because of her the number of events she excelled in. Daley Thompson, or perhaps some other decathlete, again because it requires all-round dominance?

It is a tough award to give out, simply because there are so many ways of defining the greatest, and the number of golds certainly isn't the only way, nor the best.

Not sure if i would put Phelps as greatest olympian, but I think there is one thing you are failing to take into account. Yes he has more options than a runner, however remember he still had to compete in qualifying rounds (2/3 before the final i think)and compete for more than one medal on the same day. This means that he would have raced between 24 and 32 races in these olympics.
I think i would consider giving greatest olympian to someone who was excelled in many different events (unfortunately here i'm not knowledgable enough to suggest anyone).
Note a runner could technically compete in the hurdle events as well, which would allow him/her to compete in only shorter sprint races (up to 400m) while still competing in 8 events.
Still not sure about decathalon/heptathalon people, as although they must do well in many events, would they actually come close to the "pros" at those events?