Carl Lewis, Phelps and Bolt are all close.

Phelps
Bolt
Lewis

imo

especially considering I think Phelps is 50% to come back in Tokyo and win ~2 more medals.

If Bolt were to come back in 2020 and win even a single gold, I'd put him at the top with some distance. I guess I value longevity a ton.

Lewis was a juicer who won 4/9 golds in a boycotted games, he can **** off

Longevity needs to matter a ton. Cross-generational champions when there is constant improvement in depth of competition through medicine and training and money is super relevant, even if the rate of improvement has slowed since say Lewis' day

Lol bitter Canucks ITT

also, he doesn't have a sport with medal inflation but shout out to Alexander Karelin, the RUSSIAN BEAR.

Greatest wrestler of all time imo. 887-2 lifetime record. Three straight gold medals in 88, 92, 96, and a silver in 2000. Prior to the Rulon Garnder loss, he was going on 13 years undefeated and 10 straight years without even having a point scored on him. Karelin attended 9 world championships and 12 european championships from that 1988-2000 time period. He won gold in every single one. Even the Gardner loss is mildly controversial because it came 1-0 on a contentious new 'broken hands clinch rule' that needed video replay to confirm.

Biggest of the big and baddest of the bad. People told stories about him like he was the ****ing boogeyman come to get you. Stories like him carrying fridges up flights of stairs, by himself, one handed. Dude was scary on the wrestling mat, he just manhandled these other gigantic/tough wrestlers in an unbelievable way.

everyone forgetting paul anderson as usual

A camera used by the Olympic committee to have aerial view of the stadium just fell and hit some women. It just happened so I couldn't find a link in english. But there's a video in it too so...
http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/o...a-feridos.html

this

Horse should definitely be an Olympic sport, would be so great to see if there's some incredible trick shot artist out there capable of going toe to toe with Steph

tend to think about this things not in overall achievements, but in Olympic achievements. ie Michael Jordan shouldn't be in the conversation for greatest Olympian

Karelin is the man but losing to Gardner is pretty unforgivable.

I watched a decent amount of Greco-Roman yesterday. Great sport.

Lol no russian sprinters in the 100 m due to the "boycott" and insinuation they were clean anyway. Go pick on the gymnasts or something.

Also 100m dash >>>>> any swimming event and 4 x 100m track relay >>>>> lol swimming relays also lol butterfly

Might not be enough >

If you could force people to complete a 200 m butterfly or die trying, a lot of people would die. A lot of people. ****, I sometimes do 100 m butterfly in a regular pool--barely. 200 m in an Olympic pool...nah, I'd probably pass out.

You can't say that about any track & field event.

this is a wonderful example of "neither here nor there"

Wait, is Holliday insinuating that 200m in an Olympic pool is somehow a further distance than 200m in my local pool?

well in an olympic pool you have to do it 50 m at a time instead of 25, so I guess hes saying youd pass out some longer distance from the edge then die

So a lot of people haven't undergone the specific training required to do the butterfly? Cool story.

People swim in 25 m pools? Pfft, peasants.

Hahahah

They gave one of the victims some balloons and a fluffy toy to comfort her.

a) lol carl lewis (he might have a claim if he didn't lose to johnson. ya johnson doped, but so did he, and you can't be the GOAT on lol technicalities, gotta win it on the track. boycotted olympics hurts him too, although obviously not his fault)
b) lol butterfly (just like lol racewalking)
c) lol anyone not recognizing bolt GOAT

Wtf do people have against butterfly? Is there a more physically demanding style?

I just like picturing a bunch of dead bodies in a pool is all. Like how you have to get your head out of the water within 15 m became a rule after people started passing out during longer races--well, excuse me, but that sounds like the race I want to be watching!

Well your local pool is probably 25 yards not 50 meters and you'd take 4 laps like any civilized person, so yes (on top of what DK said). Also it's a different animal; You'd be getting 7 rests after kicking off the wall. Olympic pool you'd get 3. If those kickoffs are about 5 m then that'd be an extra 20 m swimming overall. In the other strokes it's not as big of a deal but butterfly is exhausting--you have to "pop" your head and torso up and out of the water while swinging your arms overhead in order to breathe. You get a lactic acid buildup even when you're trying to coast. Taking a breath *not* containing water gets harder and harder and you really need to breathe. Even Phelps pops up within 5 m on his last turn because he's sucking wind. It takes incredible cardiovascular fitness to make it that far on top of knowing how to do the stroke.

Not even the best juiced sprinter of his era

I'm not exactly lol'ing but:

1) it's an invented stroke that is less efficient and slower than freestyle, so there is a legit argument that it's as appropriate in the Olympics as running backwards or skipping or race walking (lol)
2) compared to running as fast as you can, it's a skill that very few people ever have an opportunity to learn