Michael Phelps - Farewell

I wanted to follow up on your post on Michael Phelps.  I’ve been trying to figure out where I rank him with the all-time athletes.  My problem is I’m not sure how I really feel about swimming.  He is one of those prodigies born to a specific sport.  His body, arms, hands, feet, etc. were designed for swimming.  Like other great athletes, he went through the prodigy phase, had the focus and work ethic to realize his potential, dominated in his prime, and piled up the accomplishments over time.  Let’s look at the case for Phelps:

• Career achievements – over the span of time when Phelps was age 18 – 31 he competed in 9 Worlds & Olympics, swimming 37 individual championship races.  He won a staggering 27 golds, 7 silvers, 1 bronze, and failed to medal twice in those 37.  As you commented in your post, I seriously doubt we will live to see anyone approach those totals on the men’s side.
• All-around ability – Phelps never won the glamor race, the 100m freestyle.  Yet, he dominated the medleys, demonstrating that he was the best all-around swimmer in the world over and over.  He also had a specific stroke where he was the world’s best – the butterfly.  And, he was world class in both freestyle and backstroke, holding the 200m freestyle world record for quite some time, and qualifying for the Worlds in backstroke, although he never swam it there.  His freestyle and backstroke relay splits were among the best in the world.
• Peak dominance – in 2007/2008 at the Worlds and Olympics, he went 10 for 10 in individual championship races and set 8 world records in the 10 events.  He also set 16 individual world records during major international meets and still holds 3 of them at retirement.  He also shares 4 relay world records as of right now.
• Intangibles – he made the Olympics at age 15 and again at age 31.  He was also able to leave the sport for as long as 2 years at a time and return to re-capture his dominance.

One thing I know is that the world stopped to watch Michael Phelps; we knew were seeing something special, and that means a lot.  How he compares to people such as Ruth, Jordan, Nicklaus, or Gretzky I don’t know, but he is in the conversation.  And, man was it fun to watch.

S