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GOHEAVY.COM Debates Forum
Re: The Greatest Olympian?,
Posted By: Joe Dentice (cache-ntc-ad06.proxy.aol.com)
In Response To: The Greatest Olympian?, (Ron Fernando)
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, @ 6:59 p.m.
That is all just the price we pay for progress. And it's the same in just about everything. A year or two back Charles Lindbergh's grand son retraced his famous grandfather's route from New York to Paris. Not only did he do it in less time but he did it in a much better aircraft, one that had been tried and tested. Charles Lindbergh took the Spirit of St. Louis for a few laps around San Diego before traveling cross country and then making his historic trip across the pond. The Grandson also had GPS, a whole plane load of navigation equipment and a huge support staff watching the weather for him. Not to mention all the rescue equipment on board just in case he did splash down. All Charles had was a wicker chair and a compass. He didn't even have a front window.
Should that grandson have taken advantage of all that was available to him? Of course he should have. Had he copied his Grandfather's equipment and conditions as closely as possible there would have been a 70% or better chance that he would have failed.
We are a nation obsessed with winning. Not even how it's done, just that it was done. people don't know and they don't care. They just want to see winning. Back when I used to rodeo I sometimes traveled with another bull rider named Ray. Ray never made it to the whistle on any bull he ever rode. He always had to be drunk before he could ride and he owed money to nearly every other rider on the circuit. One day we stopped in a restaurant for lunch and the entire staff made a big deal out of the big assed satellite dish of a belt buckle he was wearing. It was about the size of a Pro Boxer's title belt and he bought it in some second hand store. But these people thought he was Ty Murray because he had the big ass dish. had those people known even a little about rodeo they would have known what a fake this guy was. But that is what happens when people only see the winning and not how to get there.
Getting back to the Olympics the only thing most people recognize is winning. Other than what I have seen on TV I know very little about competitive swimming. (Just like most people that are not involved in Powerlifting really have no clue about what we do.) They took Jim Thorpe's medals away because he got paid to play baseball one summer. Now athletes in the high profile sports make a ton of money. The US basketball team was made up of multi millionaires. A lot of the other countries had NBA players as well. Michael Phelps makes about $5 million in endorsement money. That is going to sky rocket since the 8 Gold's. Other than that poster he made Mark Spitz didn't make any money from his 7 Gold's. That is the price we pay for progress.
NBC did a little story on Bryan Clay, the 2008 Olympic decathlon Champion (and unofficial world's greatest athlete) They showed him playing with his kids and him saying "Daddy has to go to work" Where does daddy work? At the track. His job is training so he can get huge appearance fees for showing up at track meets. Sure winning the gold was a great accomplishment but a hell of a lot easier when you don't have to punch a time clock or worry about how you are going to feed your kids. Is he wrong for taking advantage of the $$$? Hell no, every person in the world of sports would do the exact same thing.
So do we really have a "Greatest Olympian?" No, not really. We have the greatest Olympian of his or her time, in his or her event. Is Phelps the greatest swimmer of all time? probably. he did something nobody else has ever done and 36 years after Spitz won 7 Gold's in the same Olympics. He did have to beat the best the world had to offer and I have to disagree with you on the Relays Ron. A lot more can go wrong than can go right when a relay team is involved. Just ask the 4 X 100 men's and Women's track teams. Sure Lezak had to come from a body length behind but the other three swimmers kept it from being 2 or 3 body lengths. A relay team is only as good as it's weakest or slowest member.
To me the greatest Olympians are the ones that make two or three or more games without all the financial support. The ones that make it in lesser known sports without all the money. The ones that do it for the love of the sport. Like the men's water polo team. ranked 9th and not expect to Medal but took the Silver.
I also have to give credit to Dara Torres. Sure she is getting sponsorship money and has a huge support staff. But you have to give her credit for making her 5th Olympic team. (She skipped 2 other wise it would have been 7) Three Silver Medals for a 41 year old is very impressive. She continues to break the American record in the 50 free. The first time she broke that same record she was 18 years old.
But to me the all time greatest Olympian was and always will be Jim Thorpe. Not only did he win both the decathlon and the pentathlon he was also entered in the Long Jump and the High Jump in the same games placing 4th or 5th in the two jumping events. That is 17 events, My guess done over the course of four or five days. Possibly less. That is a true Olympian.
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