SoSH,

I sat that one out under protest. I was out of town and using a friends computer and didn't remember my login stuff. (I really should post more if I forget that!)

Besides I remember the topic being quite futile. In my younger days I was a track coach and still have some loyalties there. I think its impossible to compare Phelps to someone like...Paavo Nurmi. Obviously, swimming is the only way to acculmualte that much gold in one olympics, so medal counts are pointless. He deserves to compared very favorably with Mark Spitz. (Looking at those old phots, its hard to realize Spitz swam without goggles, it seems like yesterday. Even Gertrude Ederle had them in 1926, for chrissakes.)

I think Track should expand their offerings...maybe say the 100meter freestyle, 100m left leg hop, 100m right legs hop, 100m sack race, maybe then we can get someone capable of winning in more than one discipline.

I tend to avoid threads that cannot reach a conclusion, at least IMHO. I might vote Abebe Bikila ahead of Phelps, and medals be damned, he could of won 3 with just a little better luck.

"I think its impossible to compare Phelps to someone like...Paavo Nurmi."

Nurmi was ####### hardcore. So was Bikila, for that matter.

when he won in rome, bikila put on his kick just as the runners passed an ethiopian obelisk that had been plundered by the italian army in the 30s. intense.