Greatest Olympian of all time

eric le roi

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I've just seen Ian Thorpe claim Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time but I have to disagree. He's won 18 golds but he's a swimmer - a sport where you can win 8 medals in a single games.

Compare that to someone like Michael Johnson or Daley Thompson - both competing in sports where realistically you can only enter 2, maybe 3 events per Olympics, but more usually 1.

So who do you think is the greatest of all time? I don't think there's a definitive answer but it's interesting to discuss.

For me it's probably Carl Lewis - 9 golds in total, sprinting and long jump, and 4 golds in the LA Olympics.

Daley Thompson also a big favourite for competing in such a brutal event as the decathlon and managing to defend his title in Moscow (albeit one boycotted by USA)
 
Jesse Owens probably, bit of a cliche though.
 
Redgrave has good durability for winning in 5 consecutive games, but he only won one medal at each so never dominated an Olympic games in the way other athletes have. Also, rowing isn't as prestigious an event as some of the athletic alternatives.
 
Theon said:
Redgrave has good durability for winning in 5 consecutive games, but he only won one medal at each so never dominated an Olympic games in the way other athletes have. Also, rowing isn't as prestigious an event as some of the athletic alternatives.
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I think competing over 5 Olympic games (20 years) out-ways becoming dominant in one Olympic games tbh. But that's just me.
 
Summit said:
I think competing over 5 Olympic games (20 years) out-ways becoming dominant in one Olympic games tbh. But that's just me.
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It's 16 years.

But anyway, that depends on the event doesn't it. I mean you aren't going to get a 38 year old 100m sprinter or 38 year old swimmer.

The nature of his event makes it possible for him to compete over 5 games.
 
I personally give more credit to individual achievements and Redgrave was always in a team. Still an outstanding achievement, don't get me wrong, but in a team you support and drive each other on, but to get some of those individual achievements requires a special type of self-discipline and inner-will. But that's just me....
 
Carl Lewis is the greatest all-round athlete and his dominance of the long jump over four Olympic games eclipses the shorter-lived reign of Phelps. That said he was lucky to compete in 1988 with his positive drugs test that was covered up, and essentially as a 100m sprinter he was bettered in his own era by Ben Johnson.

Paavo Nurmi is worth a mention. 9 golds and 3 silvers in middle and long distance running in the albeit less competitive 1920s.
 
Theon said:
It's 16 years.

But anyway, that depends on the event doesn't it. I mean you aren't going to get a 38 year old 100m sprinter or 38 year old swimmer.

The nature of his event makes it possible for him to compete over 5 games.
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My bad. I was adding 5x4, I wasn't accounting for the fact that it was zero when he competed in his first.

I agree with you in some ways with your answer, but what makes it special for me is the fact that although he was an aging Olympian, the young guns still couldn't beat him.
 
Dhyan Chand. 3 Olympic golds (28, 32, 36). 33 goals in 12 Olympic matches. Beat Hitler's Germany barefoot in 36. India beat USA 24-1 in the 32 final.

Anecdotes from wiki, because I'm lazy.

Once, while playing a hockey game, Major Dhyan Chand was not able to score a goal against the opposition team. After several misses, he argued with the match referee regarding the measurement of the goal post, and amazingly, it was found to not be in conformation with the official width of a goal post (as prescribed under international rules).[10]

After India played its first match in the 1936 Olympics, Dhyan Chand's magical stickwork drew crowds from other venues to the hockey field. A German newspaper carried a banner headline: 'The Olympic complex now has a magic show too.' The next day, there were posters all over Berlin: Visit the hockey stadium to watch the Indian magician Dhyan Chand in action.[10]

After seeing his prolific play at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler offered Dhyan Chand, a Major in the British Indian Army, German citizenship and an offer to promote him to the rank of a Colonel (which Dhyan Chand refused).[10][11]

In Holland, the authorities broke his hockey stick to check if there was a magnet inside.[10]

On one occasion, a lady from the audience asked Dhyan Chand to play with her walking stick instead. He scored goals even with them![10]

Cricket world's legend Don Bradman and Hockey's greatest player Dhyan Chand once came face to face at Adelaide in 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia. After watching Dhyan Chand in action, Don Bradman remarked "He scores goals like runs in cricket"[10]

Residents of Vienna, Austria, honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball.[12]

A tube station has been named after him in London, along with 358 other past and present Olympic heroes,in the run-up to the Games, starting on July 27,2012. The Transport for London has brought out a special 'Olympic Legends Map', detailing all 361 tube stations. Only six stops have been named after hockey players, with the three Indians - Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Leslie Claudius - cornering the majority.[13]
 
eric le roi said:
I personally give more credit to individual achievements and Redgrave was always in a team. Still an outstanding achievement, don't get me wrong, but in a team you support and drive each other on, but to get some of those individual achievements requires a special type of self-discipline and inner-will. But that's just me....
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Tbh, that is a fair comment. Although you can't take anything away from his achievements, it did require other people in order for him to be so successful.
 
Donadol said:
Dhyan Chand. 3 Olympic golds (28, 32, 36). 33 goals in 12 Olympic matches. Beat Hitler's Germany barefoot in 36. India beat USA 24-1 in the 32 final.

Anecdotes from wiki, because I'm lazy.

Once, while playing a hockey game, Major Dhyan Chand was not able to score a goal against the opposition team. After several misses, he argued with the match referee regarding the measurement of the goal post, and amazingly, it was found to not be in conformation with the official width of a goal post (as prescribed under international rules).[10]

After India played its first match in the 1936 Olympics, Dhyan Chand's magical stickwork drew crowds from other venues to the hockey field. A German newspaper carried a banner headline: 'The Olympic complex now has a magic show too.' The next day, there were posters all over Berlin: Visit the hockey stadium to watch the Indian magician Dhyan Chand in action.[10]

After seeing his prolific play at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler offered Dhyan Chand, a Major in the British Indian Army, German citizenship and an offer to promote him to the rank of a Colonel (which Dhyan Chand refused).[10][11]

In Holland, the authorities broke his hockey stick to check if there was a magnet inside.[10]

On one occasion, a lady from the audience asked Dhyan Chand to play with her walking stick instead. He scored goals even with them![10]

Cricket world's legend Don Bradman and Hockey's greatest player Dhyan Chand once came face to face at Adelaide in 1935, when the Indian hockey team was in Australia. After watching Dhyan Chand in action, Don Bradman remarked "He scores goals like runs in cricket"[10]

Residents of Vienna, Austria, honoured him by setting up a statue of him with four hands and four sticks, depicting his control and mastery over the ball.[12]

A tube station has been named after him in London, along with 358 other past and present Olympic heroes,in the run-up to the Games, starting on July 27,2012. The Transport for London has brought out a special 'Olympic Legends Map', detailing all 361 tube stations. Only six stops have been named after hockey players, with the three Indians - Dhyan Chand, Roop Singh and Leslie Claudius - cornering the majority.[13]
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Bit of trivia for you.. Roop Singh is Dhyan Chand's brother and is also the person after whom the cricket stadium in Gwalior is named -- the same stadium in which Sachin hit 200.
 
Cian O'Connor.
 
Theon said:
Redgrave has good durability for winning in 5 consecutive games, but he only won one medal at each so never dominated an Olympic games in the way other athletes have. Also, rowing isn't as prestigious an event as some of the athletic alternatives.
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Rowers perform in multiple disciplines at an Olympics? Would it physically be to their benefit to do so?
 
zing said:
Bit of trivia for you.. Roop Singh is Dhyan Chand's brother and is also the person after whom the cricket stadium in Gwalior is named -- the same stadium in which Sachin hit 200.
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And he was born in the same city as me. :cool:
 
Phelps has won more Olympic medals now than anyone else ever - the most medals won by a winter games athlete is 12. So by that reckoning he's the greatest, I suppose.
 
F-Red said:
Given what other events are happening right this moment in time, i don't think the OP would be referring to any other olympics would they?! :wenger:
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Probably not. :o :) Some countries do perform much much better at the winter variant and that would be where their Olympic legends did their work.

Oh forget it, too picky. lol
 
Emil Zátopek won the 5000m, 10000m and Marathon in the 1952 Olympic games. This is a very special achievement, one of which is unlikely to be equalled any time soon.
 
Michelle Smith.

Who would have thought it possible for one little lady from Irish to come from no-where to win three golds and a bronze. Oh the heady days.
 
eric le roi said:
I've just seen Ian Thorpe claim Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time but I have to disagree. He's won 18 golds but he's a swimmer - a sport where you can win 8 medals in a single games.

Compare that to someone like Michael Johnson or Daley Thompson - both competing in sports where realistically you can only enter 2, maybe 3 events per Olympics, but more usually 1.

So who do you think is the greatest of all time? I don't think there's a definitive answer but it's interesting to discuss.

For me it's probably Carl Lewis - 9 golds in total, sprinting and long jump, and 4 golds in the LA Olympics.

Daley Thompson also a big favourite for competing in such a brutal event as the decathlon and managing to defend his title in Moscow (albeit one boycotted by USA)
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I wonder how many Thorpe could have won if he hadn't stupidly retired so early.
 
If Bolt can win the 100m and 200m again he will be in with a shout. I don't think that anyine has ever defended their 100m title, not sure about the 200m.
 
Wibble said:
If Bolt can win the 100m and 200m again he will be in with a shout. I don't think that anyine has ever defended their 100m title, not sure about the 200m.
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If Bolt wins the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m at this Olympics and does the same in Rio then for me he's the greatest Olympian of all time.
 
Michael Johnson also thought it was Jesse Owen.

Speaking of defending the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay he won, obviously the outbreak of the world wars cancelled the 1940 and 1944 Olympics. Given the way he won the two races, particularly the 200m, it's highly likely he would have managed to defend them.
 
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