Michael Phelps.... Deserving of the hype?

[Kevin]

I think (but am not sure about this) that this (bolt not going for hurdles) is because the competition in athletics is a lot bigger than in swimming.
By the way, a dutch woman got the gold in dressage for the third time in a row...Anky van Grunsven......however....far from being greatest athlete ever though.:)

I think it's because Bolt isn't as good as Phelps I believe the competition in swimming is just as good if not better, you don't have 3 guys under the world record if they aren't good (note this happened with Michael Johnson in the 200m as well, 3 guys broke the previous world record in his win). At the least Bolt is not as willing to put it on the line so that we can actually see. Phelps has said that he didn't swim as hard as he could in some of the finals because he had to conserve to be able to sustain. It's obvious Bolt also was good enough to be able to conserve energy even in the finals because he didn't push through the finish in the 100m. But since he didn't attempt to run a hurdle event or a 400 we can't know if he would have been able to stand up to what Phelps did. That is a major part of my point as well.

Edit: I forgot to address this point. The 3 time champion thing I was refering to, has been done in several other sports. It's never been done by a male swimmer (I have to double check on female swimmers). That was more a point to help illustrate the competition. No male swimmer has ever won the same individual event in 3 different Olympics even though many of them go to 3 or 4 Olympics. Other sports have had 3 time individual winners, including track. And I wasn't even claiming Phelps had to do it, to be the greatest Olympian of all time (a title I can't give him yet) and not I'm saying Olympian, not athlete. I was saying that if he does, it just solidifies it as he would have done yet another thing that no swimmer had done. Doing things that no one else has ever done in your sport is a mark to greatness.

Babe Ruth was a great ball player (again since I rate baseball lower on athletic requirements I'm not saying athlete). He hit 54 home runs one year (we all know about his 60 home run record that stood for 20+ years but I'm referring to a different season). There were I believe it was 6 (I'd have to dig a bit to find out but I know it was at least 3 and possible as many as 9) TEAMS that didn't have that many home runs that year. We can't say what Ruth would do if he trained and played with modern competition (or even competition for older eras he didn't play in), but when you look at something like that how can you deny that he was great? So I apply metrics that like that to others, and it's a small way in which you can compare people between sports. Phelps did something no other swimmer has ever done, 8 medals in one Olympics, another swimmer had gotten 7, against what even he admits was weaker competition that what Phelps faces. No other swimmer besides Phelps in 04 has ever even gotten 5. So it's obvious he rules the pool. Have any other volleyball teams won every game for a year like May and Walsh? If so then I give more points to Phelps. It's that type of deal in my mind.