Bush4eva

[AtiliusRegulus]

Do you now accept my thesis that Usain Bolt is the greatest athlete of the 21st century?

Bolt successfully won 3 gold medals across 3 events at 3 consecutive Olympics.
1. Sha’Carri Richardson won the world championships in 2023 but failed to win the Olympic gold 1 year later.
2. Noah Lyle’s after winning the 100 and 200 at the world championships was only able to produces gold (barely) and bronze one year later in the Olympics.

[elmerjfudd]

I dont know bush seems to have made a great case for majain lopez.

And as the only cuban on this board im glad to know that when we strive for greatness we are second to none.

[Bush4Ever.]

Do you now accept my thesis that Usain Bolt is the greatest athlete of the 21st century?

Bolt successfully won 3 gold medals across 3 events at 3 consecutive Olympics.
1. Sha’Carri Richardson won the world championships in 2023 but failed to win the Olympic gold 1 year later.
2. Noah Lyle’s after winning the 100 and 200 at the world championships was only able to produces gold (barely) and bronze one year later in the Olympics.

Mijain Lopez just won his 5th gold in the same event, the only athlete in history to do so (08-24 games).

Even by your own logic, it fails. Note that the great Karelin lost in his fourth Olympics (albeit after the most dominant career in history and a BS rule, but still...).

Note: Lopez isn't either, because you can't take winning rates into account without taking depth of participation into account. It's same basic reason why no one considers George Mikan better than Joker or Giannis, even though he dominated his era (in a vacuum) way more than either of those guys dominated their eras.

[kobeunderbite]

Phelps is clearly greater because what Bolt achieved in those three events had already been done (going 3/3). What Phelps did is unlikely to ever be repeated, the wide range of victories in diverse disciplines, the 23 total gold or 8 in one games. Just citing Lyles who after the 100m looked very likely to pull off the 3/3 is proof of this. No one has even considered the possibility that someone could achieve what Phelps did since 2008.