Who is your Greatest Olympian

Its started with a big, I'm sure you are all looking forward to a magnificent Specticle over the next month. Let's hope the rain holds off, though judging by so many teams wearing anoraks and cagouls as part of their national team colours, maybe others are less optimistic.

So who is your favourite Olympian....?

I have suggested a number of legends in my eyes and I am sure many of you could add more, please make suggestions and if we ask kindly I am sure a moderator can add a name to the poll here or there.

Well i did long jump, high jump, 100 meters and 200 metres(and various others)- If I did more athletics at my secondary school I would have probally got into the decathlon.. So its a tough one between carl lewis and daley thompson- But i voted daley thompson

Zatopek or Nurmi could be on there. Perhaps even both.

Jesse Owens - Long Jump?

Wasnt Jesse Owens far more renowned for his sprinting above all else?

No Sebastian Coe, Linford Christie, Olga Korbut.... what about Matt Pinsent, who is a multiple gold medallist too..!!

Of course, the list could be endless. You could add Emile Zatopek, Valery Borzov, Mirits Yifter, Haille Gebreselasse, Dawn Fraser, Ed Moses and Sergey Bubka..... and you still wouldn't scratch the surface.

I would have chosen Kelly Holmes if she had been on the list..!!

Perhaps... and this is just a bit of feedback here, it might be a good idea to produce polls sport by sport and pick the best of each.

Some good suggestions there for others not included, though little comment on those who are...!

May not encapsulate everyone's personal suggestions but it does cover a large Majority.

As mentioned above, if you do have a good suggestion, like Olga Kolbek, then please feel free to ask a moderator to add them to the poll.

Maybe a little piece about why you think they are the greatest and should be included.

No one has mentioned Nadia Comaneci who at 14 years of age was the standout star performer of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

PAAVO NURMI.

Ray Ewry and Lasse Viren are worthy of consideration.

Cassius Clay

When i was in Australia, there was this distance runner from NZ. I cant remember his name but he inspired the Aussies to write a song. I dont care, as long as wel beat New Zealand.

gboycottnut wrote:No one has mentioned Nadia Comaneci who at 14 years of age was the standout star performer of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Erm.... I voted for Nadia Comeneci. Check out the poll... that's my vote that she got.

Jennifer1984 wrote:

gboycottnut wrote:No one has mentioned Nadia Comaneci who at 14 years of age was the standout star performer of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Erm.... I voted for Nadia Comeneci. Check out the poll... that's my vote that she got.

She was interviewed the other day - she looks great for 52.

A very difficult thing to judge, given the disparity in medals available in different sports. Spitz and Phelps are obviously numerically superior, but for the sheer significance Jesse Owens and for prolonged success in an intensely physical discipline Redgrave must also be up there.

I would have liked to see Abebe Bikila make the list. I don't think Usain Bolt should be on such a list just yet.

Good call on Abebe Bikila... he ran the Marathon barefoot didn't he and won 2 Gold.

Linebreaker wrote:Good call on Abebe Bikila... he ran the Marathon barefoot didn't he and won 2 Gold.

Yes, and yes... would have been 3 but he got hurt during the 3rd

Sad story about the car crash and the resulting complications. The world lost a great athlete and a very decent person at such a young age.

I voted for Daley Thompson, because during the 1984 Olympic Games I asked my mum if I could change my name to Daley Thompson (I was four at the time). But Fanny Blankers-Koen down as a hurdler? Didn't she win four golds at the last London Games?

Peter Snell could have made the list, he was a superb middle-distance Olympian.

Usain Bolt. Took over in beijing and always so chilled.

Ben Ainslie (Solo Sailing) Al Oerter (Discus) and Carl Lewis (Long jump) are the Only Olympians to have won three golds in consecutive games in the same event.

Ainslie might make it four in a row this games making it four golds one silver and the worlds greatest Olympic sailor.

Bob Beamon.

Good call Luckless

Peter Snell - last man to win the 800 and 1500 double (I think)

Swimmers get more chances - 100m, 110m, 115m, 199m, 200, 205m, belly up, head down, kicking with left leg and drawing with right arm, kicking with right leg and left arm, swimming with great toe up and the other toes down, swimming on the left side, swimming on the right side, swimming with your tongue sticking out, 4x100 relay, 4x115 relay, 4x199 relay, 4x199 reverse relay.... endless.

Track & Field events are the heart and soul of olympics.

I am landing in London on Friday.

Enjoy the Games, Leff.

I'll never forget that Friday at Sydney 2000 when all the Field athletes strode out into the stadium to that trumpet fanfare and the cauldron buring brightly... it really hit me what an event the Olympics is.

The best athletes in the World... all shapes and sizes. Sort of comical and majestic depending on the discipline. The shot putters looked like prisoners out on day release. But boy could they hurl that heavy metal!

Elsewhere, Aus bt SA 6-0 (not cricket series) and Aus bt Spain 5-0 (not football).

Time to add Bradley Wiggins to the list of candidates , no ?

The problem with the Olympics is that I dont view 75% of them as real sports.

I mean what in the point in backstroke. If a shark was chasing you in the water you would backstroke away. Events should be about being fastest/strongest, not competing in a style that slows you dow. We dont have hopping races after all.

I always like Michael Johnson. Truly amazing athlete.

Lumbering_Jack wrote:The problem with the Olympics is that I dont view 75% of them as real sports.

I mean what in the point in backstroke. If a shark was chasing you in the water you would backstroke away. Events should be about being fastest/strongest, not competing in a style that slows you dow. We dont have hopping races after all.

I always like Michael Johnson. Truly amazing athlete.

Too many medals in swimming. Olympics should about athletes like Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, Michael Johnson, and Usain Bolt.

I mean what in the point in backstroke. If a shark was chasing you in the water you would backstroke away. Events should be about being fastest/strongest, not competing in a style that slows you dow. We dont have hopping races after all.

We do have walking races though.

That attitude would dismiss most of the Olympic sports to be fair.

Crimey wrote:

I mean what in the point in backstroke. If a shark was chasing you in the water you would backstroke away. Events should be about being fastest/strongest, not competing in a style that slows you dow. We dont have hopping races after all.

We do have walking races though.

That attitude would dismiss most of the Olympic sports to be fair.

Don't think that is a bad thing to be honest. I mean what is the point of a walking race. I could turn up and do a light jog to beat them. Utterly pointless.

Lots of Olympic sports are tests of different things, different skills, rather than just the strongest, quickest etc. It's not as if other sports detriment the rest.

Lumbering_Jack wrote:I mean what is the point of a walking race.

To see who can walk the quickest over a set distance. Is it that difficult to understand?

Jesse Owens for me. The achievement in itself to win 4 Golds in track and fields is even more stunning. Also the legacy. He brought a new generation of interest to the Olympics and inspired generations long afterwards.

Obviously a difficult question where there is no definitive answer.

Sheer weight of medals is misleading, because a top swimmer or (male)gymnast can be competing for up to 8 in one Games, whereas track and field stars are between 1 and 4 (depending on specialisation), most cyclists 2 or 3 and the likes of the rowers, sailors and guys in weight classed sports (boxing, wrestling, weight lifting) only get a go for one per Games.

Also, is the greatest Olympian one who shows great longevity (like Redgrave, winning gold at 5 consecutive games), or one who dominates the events of a single games (Bolt's 3 golds in 3 world records in Beijing being one of these cases), or some combination of both.

Also, occasionally the importance of an Olympic performance only becomes apparent after the event - Jessie Owens, Cassius Clay and Tommy Smith (the Black Power salute on the 200m podium in Mexico) all have a greater significance now with historical perspective than they did at the time.

My conclusion is that it's an unaswerable question, although from my watching of the Games (since about 1980), Bolt's performances stand out as transcending and perhaps even transforming the events.

I think Bolt will evolve sprinting and we will get taller sprinters from here on in- so i would agree with that.

Usain Bolt's performance in the 100 metres in Beijing was staggering. For him to have been celebrating well before the line and still break the world record was phenomenal.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Usain Bolt's performance in the 100 metres in Beijing was staggering. For him to have been celebrating well before the line and still break the world record was phenomenal.

I think that will be one of THE Olympic moments for years and years to come.

Crimey wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Usain Bolt's performance in the 100 metres in Beijing was staggering. For him to have been celebrating well before the line and still break the world record was phenomenal.

I think that will be one of THE Olympic moments for years and years to come.

That's what I was meaning about a performance that transcended the sport - even people who don't care about athletics know who Bolt is and how good he can be (other than at imitating Richard Branson...). Ben Johnston's run in Seoul would have been another of those given how he simply left Carl Lewis and the others for dead, but we know that he was rocket fuelled for that one.

I have to say I actually thought tBolt's 200m performance was even better, as Michael Johnson's WR was considered to be untouchable, yet Bolt managed to just beat it. I still think he hasn't quite realised his potential over 200 though, where I honestly think he has the capability to go under 19s.

has to be phelps IMO...

19 medals!!

CF wrote:has to be phelps IMO...

19 medals!!

A lot more medals for him to win though.

Of course Cirmey but the dominacne Phelps has had is unheard of, you can see that this year with a whole variety of different winners this time around.

Thomond wrote:Of course Cirmey but the dominacne Phelps has had is unheard of, you can see that this year with a whole variety of different winners this time around.

Phelps certainly has to be well up the list of great Olympians, with winning gold at three different games and having the record for both Olympic gold medals and Olympic medals overall, as well as the most golds in a single games (8 - 5 in individual events, to match the record for this). I think perhaps the reason I don't consider him (subjectively) the greatest is that swimming is not the most visually dramatic sport, so the images of him winning don't stick in the memory in the way of (say) Bolt crossing the line in the Beijing 100m.

One slight downer for Phelps so far this Games is that he's only taken gold in relays, and has been beaten in his individual events. He still has a couple of chances, particularly in the 100m butterfly, but he is certainly not the dominant force in the pool that he was in 04 and 08.

Does swimming have different enough events is my problem with phelps- He is clearly one of the greatest ever sporstmen. However many just cannot get 19 golds whatever they do- and phelps will probally get more as well. If your good at one swimming style- how hard is it to be the best at another style?

Oakey, I suppsoe golf might be a good analogy here. You can be a good drive, but can't putt for shoite or have a good short game and can't drive. There is a relatively difference between the different disciplines.

Westy and donald hey- why cant they just be one golfer!!

Ali would be by a mile but I dont think he should be counted because he was mainly a pro.

Sir Steve Redgrave hands down without Ali. A genuine Olympic legend.

Myst

Phelps medals have come mainly in freestyle and butterfly events - while the strokes are different, the physique required is similar for both, in that long arms with flexible shoulders and big feet with very mobile ankles are an advantage. It would definitely be more impressive if he had some breaststroke or backstroke medals, as there is a much greater biomechanical difference for these strokes.

I think as a rule of thumb you can halve the number of medals a swimmer wins to allow a direct comparison with track and field or cycling. As such, Phelps still stands well up there with the likes of Carl Lewis.

Cheers for that.

What about distances- how different is 50, 100 and 200.

Is the difference between 200 and 400 m on the track the same as 100m to 200m or 200 and 400m in swimming!- are they to many distances is my point here.

I suppose stamina is the biggest difference there. 50 is all about explosion, I would guess it's as much about churning out strokes quickly as much as it's about churning out powerful ones. Swimming is somewhat tougher on the the body than sprinting while the arms are important in sprinting they are far more important in swimming.



I don't know enough about swimming to say there are too many distances but I think it requires a great effort to be able to swim for 400m for that long, these guys need a vast amount of energy to be able to do this it is incredible how they can only have half an hour or and hour between races of different types. 400m is long distance equivalent of swimming I would guess, about keepinig pace for most of it and a final kick at the end. Lochte did that well the other day

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

Lumbering_Jack wrote:I mean what is the point of a walking race.

To see who can walk the quickest over a set distance. Is it that difficult to understand?

Yes, when other options are faster, such as a light jog.