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witch one is the best?
the hockey team for me.

mmm

honestly I think America needed the Hockey team story more than Phelps.

I would have to go with the hockey team. If it happened when there were "dream teams" it wouldnt have been that big, but with a bunch of collegiate players, beating the "unbeatable" team, was impressive. Herb was an incredible coac/motivator.
Not to take anything away from Phelps, at all. I also heard while watching the Olympics that China designed this pool wider and deeper than any other, helps with the times, it wouldnt offer Phelps any advantage against the other swimmers, but it does against the clock according to the clip I saw. So while Phelps would still have won all those races, might not set so many World Records.

All in all, a slight edge to the hockey team, but Phelps is impressive and actually the only thing that really kept me interested in watching the Olympics.

I'll put the 1980 hockey team on top because it was such an astonishing upset. While a couple of Phelps' races were supposed to be close (the free relay over the French and the 100 fly as the only individual race where he doesn't hold the world record), many of them weren't close. Not to diminish 8-for-8 in any way, but had he won less then 6, it would have been pretty shocking.

I'll join with those who say that NBC is going a little fast in this whole "best Olympian ever". It's always hard to rate someone immediately. Does he have the most medals? Sure. But he's also competing in a sport that gives out more medals then most. Best Olympic Swimmer? Sure, I'll go there. Best Olympian? Give it time.

glg wrote:I'll join with those who say that NBC is going a little fast in this whole "best Olympian ever". It's always hard to rate someone immediately. Does he have the most medals? Sure. But he's also competing in a sport that gives out more medals then most. Best Olympic Swimmer? Sure, I'll go there. Best Olympian? Give it time.

I agree about Phelps being the Olympian with the most swimming medals as not being the best Olympian of all time. That honor should surely go to Jim Thorpe, who won gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon. Winning those multi-discipline competitions is a better barometer of 'Best Olympian' than anything else.

Check out his abilities in the pentathon and decathlon events:

*100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat
*220 in 21.8 seconds
*440 in 51.8 seconds
*880 in 1:57
*mile in 4:35
*120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds
*220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds.
*long jump 23 ft 6 in
*high-jump 6 ft 5 in.
*pole vault 11 feet
*put the shot 47 ft 9 in
*throw the javelin 163 feet
*throw the discus 136 feet.

That may not mean much with today's high-tech athletes and equipment, but remember... this was 1912. Jim Thorpe also played baseball, basketball, and - mostly notably - football. He was the first player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and is a member of the college football, U.S. Olympic, and national track and field halls of fame.

He was a truly talented athlete.


Dawn

I'd say Hockey. Phelps was expected to win 8 gold medals. I doubt the USA hockey team was even expected to be in the gold medal game.

thor wrote:I'd say Hockey. Phelps was expected to win 8 gold medals. I doubt the USA hockey team was even expected to be in the gold medal game.

They absolutely were not expected to win a medal of any color, let alone a gold one. I don't think anyone gave them a snowball's chance of making it past the first round. I suppose most people thought they would get blasted in nearly every game. But that's what makes their medal that much more precious. Our college kids, who were going to classes and had no international experience, against the 'professional' teams of other countries, who did nothing but play hockey. It's what really put hockey on the map in the US. Before that game, no one but states with hockey teams knew what ice hockey was. After that game, everyone knew what hockey was.

But, more than the mismatch, the US/USSR game had such political ramifications that the US victory - and subsequent gold medal - means more than Phelps' achievement does to me. It was just a much more emotional experience for us.



Dawn
Who hates not letting the college kids do it on the ice in the Olympics

Its one of my favorite childhood sports memories....1980 Hockey team in a landslide.

Living through both. I give it to the Hockey team. For those that were not around, I think the Hockey game with the USSR ended up being more then a hockey game. The US was in a very bad economic state, the Iranians had some of our people held hostage and things in the US just didn't look or feel good. And then along comes this group of young hockey players taking on the juggernaut of the USSR, who had taken many NHL teams to task in the previous months. And even though it wasn't the gold medal game it was Us against them. It lifted the spirits of Americans when we really needed it.

Phelps is good, but the hockey team, they were special.

hockey, and it's not even close. phelps is amazing, but the hockey team brought down the best team in the world. that was trully amazing!

The Hockey Team does it for me, but I won't take anything away from Phelps.

The guy has won 14 gold medals in the past 2 Olympics. That means he has averaged as many gold medals over the span of 2 Olympics as Mark Spitz won in 1972.

Yes, they give away a lot of medals in Swimming, but do any of you realize the different distances and styles of race that he has to perfect in order to even be capable of winning 8 gold medals?

He has dominated the Olympics like no one else ever has, and on that alone, should be considered the greatest Olympian ever.

I will say that the Men's 4X100 relay when the U. S. caught the French on the last leg and beat them after the French were talking smack, is probably my favorite Olympic moment after the 1980 Hockey Team.

Hockey team. But is it really a fair comparison?

The hockey story was a rare bright moment in the context of the Cold War. And the winners had many, many faces, which as a lover of team sports made the story more compelling. Plus, the Miracle on Ice had the element of surprise, which every sports fan loves.

By contrast, as amazing as it was, the Phelps story was almost expected. Then again, that's what makes it so impressive. The guy is simply the best ever at his sport. And to prove that, he had to break one heck of a record. So I'd hate to pick against him right now. It's almost like dissing Michael Jordan by saying he was no Babe Ruth. Dissing Rembrandt by saying he was no Mozart. (Or dissing YOUR favorite spiritual leader by saying he was no Spinoza ... but I digress.)

I prefer the apples to apples comparisons -- like Jack versus Tiger (which, with the knee injury, is back in play, at least for the moment), or Sampras versus Laver.

Speaking of hockey, when will we be able to say Gretzky versus ______?