Blake wrote:
Whatever, sandman...
when I am like this? pray tell, what is your expertise, I have asked you before and though you put me down repeatedly, you fail to tell us how it is that you are such an expert.
Yes, I did forget that Bolt had competed in the 200, and more power to him for having done so. My bad. However, it only moderately changes my point.. It is great that he as been able to do 3 different distances, and it is great that a Ledecky has competed in 4 different distances of freestyle (100, 200, 400, 800... and btw, she is the world record holder in the 1500) ... which, is the only stroke she competes in... by choice. It was a shock to many that she was so competitive in the 200 and the 100 in the relay), but she chose to try and she succeeded. That does not make it easy, it means that she put the work into all of the disciplines to succeed... by choice. BTW, Phelps winning the 200IM this year is his FOURTH straight Gold in that event, (a totally unprecedente feat). He did miss out on winning a fourth straight 100 Butterfly however, finishing in a tie for 2nd.
You indeed did say that the
Quote:
"bottom line is that swimming has the lowest bar for earning a medal of all of the olympic sports"
. How is that shows the "utmost respect for the sport? Seriouisly??? That shows Little respect, sandman, no matter how you try to spin it.
And yes, Bolt fans have pitted his accomplishments against Phelps, and you damn well know it. You can try to spin all of this as my being irrational and emotional, and I admit that I get a bit "pi$$ed" when swimmers are shown so little respect and when their accomplishments are basically dismissed as "the lowest bar for earning a medal". And yes, I might get "emotional" when you repeatedly suggest that I lack "reality"... as for irrational, you just think what you wish... it is far easier than answering my questions to you.
Your questions are going in a pointless direction. When did I say I was an expert on anything? I'm not an expert and obviously neither are you. I did, however, compete in track and field in both high school and for a while in college and I have followed both sports closely since I was a kid and learned quite a lot about them. The only reason you want to know my background is in hopes that it will enable you to make an ad-hominem attack (which would be totally invalid anyway by definition).
I don't disagree with any of what you said about Phelps or Ledecky. I agree that Phelps is the greatest swimmer of all time (have said so multiple times) and that he has achieved unprecedented things in his sport. Ledecky is younger but is also an unprecedented talent in a lot of ways (though Missy Franklin was just as successful in 2012). You seem to want to ascribe some sentiment to me that I simply don't possess. It's strange really, when the only point I'm making is that you cannot do an apples to apples comparison of medal counts between two different sports.
When I said the bar was lower for winning a medal in swimming, I meant that it is easier to come away with medals in swimming (particularly if you are on the US team) than it is in other sports. To provide an example; there are certainly a lot of athletes who win medals in the Olympic games but considerably fewer who win multiple medals. Right now there are 42 swimmers who have won multiple Olympic medals! 42!!! That's more than all of the other sports combined!
Again, that's part of the sport and I don't begrudge those athletes their achievements. They put in long hours of hard work to get to where they are and they must beat other highly talented and well trained athletes to win those medals. My only problem is with the way you are misrepresenting track and field here for some reason

. Your notion that the reason no one has won the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 in track is because no one has "chosen" to do so, it just plain wrong to be blunt. There is no "choice" in that; it's not possible to do it. Yes the distances are the same but swimming and running are radically different in that running is far more specialized at each distance than swimming and it takes longer to recover (particularly from distances above 400 meters) because of the impact and the insane build up of lactic acid in the muscles.