Michael Johnson: 'Michael Phelps? Michael Who? It's All About Usain Bolt'

another washed up has-been who thinks they should have gotten more than 15 minutes

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It's safe to say that the talent pool, no pun intended, is far deeper in sprint events than in swimming.

I'm guessing that world class sprinters have some respect for Phelps, but a small fraction of what the general public has for him.

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Couple of points

Phelps is a gr4eat athlete one of the greatest but

-Swimming has too many events
-All the WR this year in swimming were ridiculous
-100m has always been the marquee event of the olympics and Hisein Bolt destroyed the record. I would think that if it was Tyson Gay it be just has big a story has Phelps if not bigger. He destroyed the field running in a time that seems unbelievable.

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>> Wha? How does he qualify as a washed up has been.

washed-up : no longer races. IE, he's done.
has-been : he's no longer in the spotlight, unless he puts himself their by virtue of others.

Get it? Good.

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1. Bolt didn't have new technology of suit to help him break the record.
2. Bolt didn't have a "speed friendly" newly designed pool (extra lane lowers backwash, deeper pool lowers backwash) to help him break record
3. Phelps won 5 NOT 8...he was a member of a team of 7 other people who helped win the other 3. AND he didn't have to compete in the prelims in those races like other countries did.
4. Bob Mathias, a decathalon , yup that's 10 events. Won back to back Olympic golds having to compete and win overall for 10 events, just to get one gold. He's the best ever as far as I'm concerned. ANYONE who has to be great at 10,000 meter, javelin throw, high jump, shot put, long jump and then some, to win, is an OVERALL athlete, not just a swimming phenom with special technology to help him...yes Phelps is impressive but GREATEST EVER??? I don't think so

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Michael Johnson is a washed up punk. He was good in his day. He did like to wear those shiny nikes..He has no business dissing phelps like that. Johnson is lucky some people care to remember him. Phelps's popularity has to be right up there with woods and armstrong after this week. People will be talking about phelps everyday for years to come. I doubt anyone will think of johnson until 2012 olympics maybe,,,as far as bolt goes, he needs to win a few more races and set a few more records at this olympics and in 2012

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What Bolt did was amazing, but to compare winning 8 Gold Medals in 8 races and setting 7 WR's to winning one race is absurd, and makes Johnson look like an idiot. What Phelps has done this week is incomparable.

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WHY TAKE THIS GUYS OPNION AS ANYTHING ELSE BUT THAT.

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If Bolt stayed home from the olympics and he did not have his "historic olympic moment" tv ratings would not have changed. Take phelps and his accomplishments, even the possibility of his accomplishement s out of the picture and the olympics would be as lame as ever. Yeah, sure Bolt won a race, maybe the most important rac ein the histry of the world, and yeah, he made it look easy,,so he had a good day,,just ask tyson gay how that goes,,one good or bad day should not define a persons olympics,,, 8 gold medals, 7 world records, deserves SOME respect from Michael Johnson,,that was just rude and classless for him to say phelps was irrelevant, ironic now that he is irrellevent,,he (michael johnson) still holds a record or two so he should have more respect

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If anybody knows anything about exercise science then you know without a doubt that phelps isnt the greatest olympian of all time. His sport just allows more room for competing in different events. I mean to set a world record in every event to me says that the sport is weak and hasnt reached the curve that track and field has as far as talent. In swimming you don't have to worry about the pounding the body takes from the ground and your not carrying your body weight. You have waves to help you out. Michael Johnson is a legend and not a has been. trust me, he went out on top. I've done all kind of sports and would have to say more people would be able to do what phelps did before they ran 43.1 in the 400m or ran 19.32 in the 200m.

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Guys. I think we are comparing apples and grapes here. The fact is that in swimming you can do up to 8 events while in athletics you can do only 3-4 max. Now bolt more than likely will add another 2 Gold medals to his tally making it 3 in total so he maxed out on his possible accomplishments. Phelps on the other hand got 8 from 8 so he maxed out too. Now Bolt will more than likely be more dominant in his victories than Phelps in terms of margins which is what makes him so special. But let give both guys the credit for achieveing what the highest grades they good of possibly got in a single olympics and cut the crap. Also might I remind you guys that the premium events at any olympics is in fact the 100 and 200 metres thay draw the most spectators.

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Michael who? That is a good one. Birds of a feather do flock together. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Any chance that Michael Phelps and Michael Johnson would have a sports debate on this issue. Comparing swimming to track and field is like comparing Donna Summer to Deborah Harry.

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Comparing gold medals is a bit simplistic, with the number of events available to swimmers. To be facetious about it, if medals were given for every permutation of sprinters running forwards, backwards, on their hands and knees (and combinations of these and relays) at 50, 100 and 200m, Bolt would easily have 8 golds as well. Also, running is more prestigious than swimming for good reason - it's a more basic human function. Even the fatties I imagine Mark and JK are probably run to the fridge for the last slice of cake ;-)

Michael Johnson is still the fastest man on the planet (at least until the 200m final) and winner of 4 Olympic and 9 World golds.

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After winning the Olyimpic 100 m in 9.69!!! seconds world record time!! Puma, the spikes that bolt wears had an increase in Sales of over 2,000,000 yes.....TWO MILLION spikes in under one hour.....Yeah Dont believe uh Go GOOGLE

Take that into consideration..wen u consider popularity and who is the star of the games. Wats has been so impressive about phelps......

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If you are a swimming fan the it is Phelps. If you into Sprinting it is Bolt. Plan and simple.

Any of you know who Brian Lara is? No? Exactly, Johnson is right. To many people Phelps is some one that won 8 gold medals and everyone knows that but they care more about the 100m so Bolt is the man.

Crap, in Russia they probably care more about who one the weight lifting.

USA ain't the whole world, remember Football (as in the game where you use your feet and a ball) is the number 1 sport in the world but it ain't big in the US.


Quick question, why people in the US so easily offended?

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Yes, he is interested more in his own sport, and when the Americans used to blow the world away in athletics (with the aid of some chemicals) so were all of you.

Now that the playing field has been leveled, you've all decided that track and field is not it anymore, but that's simply because the world is catching up.

So for you the best athlete is the best American, MJ on the other hand is being fairer in his outlook and not so obviously and admittedly prejudiced and provincial.

Phelps has don great but his sport is stacked for one to do great, you can do one length of the pool in 4/5 different ways and you even get to mix them and still do many various relays, you also get to go 50, 100, etc and they count as separate events. In addition, they are only half as many qualifying rounds - why shouldn't one do well especially as the water is cushioning the body as against the hard track which punishes the body.

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Firstly both Phelps and Bolt have done incredibly well this Olympics and have been thrilling to watch. However, I find it a bit odd all the comments about how easy it is win swimming events because of how many there are versus Athletics. Looking at Athletics there are 14 individual events which test the speed of land loving humans:

- 10000m Men
- 100m Men
- 110m hurdles Men
- 1500m Men
- 200m Men
- 20km walk Men
- 3000m steeplechase Men
- 400m Men
- 400m hurdles Men
- 4x100m relay Men
- 4x400m relay Men
- 5000m Men
- 50km walk Men
- 800m Men

For aquatic based humans there are 17:

- 100m backstroke Men
- 100m breaststroke Men
- 100m butterfly Men
- 100m freestyle Men
- 1500m freestyle Men
- 200m backstroke Men
- 200m breaststroke Men
- 200m butterfly Men
- 200m freestyle Men
- 200m individual medley Men
- 400m freestyle Men
- 400m individual medley Men
- 4x100m freestyle relay Men
- 4x100m medley relay Men
- 4x200m freestyle relay Men
- 50m freestyle Men
- marathon 10km Men

So of the 17 available Phelps won 8 (47%) whereas if Bolt wins the relay he'll get 3 out of 14 (21%). Phelps was the best in the world across 4 different swimming styles and from events which took 50 secs up to 4 minutes. Bolt was the best in events which took 9 to 19 seconds in only one style. For Bolt to achieve the equivalent of what Phelps did he'd have to do something like expanding his range to at least the 400 metre distance and add the hurdles. Then he'd have to win the 100, 200, 400, 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles and the 4X100 and 4X400 and set world records in all but 1. Sound incredible? Well that's basically what Phelps did. It's been 24 years since someone won the 100 and 200 double on the track and on that occasion Lewis also won the relay and the long jump. In 112 years of Olympic games no one has even done in the pool what Phelps did. The fact that Phelps made it look easy is a testamony to the enormity his achievement.

Bolt is a great Athlete and very entertaining to watch, but in 30 years from now no one will be talking about his performance in Beijing whereas people will still be amazed at how gr8t Phelps was in '08.

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