Olympics: Phelps Double Counting and Phony Medals

No one can say that Michael Phelps is not a great swimmer. But best Olympian ever? The fact is Phelps basically does two events, but gets eight medals out of it. He sets world records while winning, but so does nearly every other gold-medal swimmer. It's a function of technology: the new swimsuits and the faster pool:

Here are Phelps's races-- basically the 100 and 200 meter freestyle or butterfly four times over:

1. 100-meter butterfly: Phelps swims 100 meters using the butterfly stroke (a stupid stroke, which no one would swim if the goal was to get across water)

2. 400 freestyle relay: Phelps swims 100 meters freestyle

3. 400 individual medley: Phelps swims 100 meters butterfly and 100 meters breastsroke; with two other strokes

4. 200 butterfly: same as 1 and 3, only longer

5. 200 freestyle: same as 2, only longer

6. 200 individual medley: butterfly and freestyle, with backstroke and breaststroke tacked on

7. 800 freestyle relay: same as 4

8. 400 medley relay: Phelps swims 100 meters butterfly, same as 1

Three of the medals are in relays, so he is down to five. (Spitz won relays, too, as did Carl Lewis, but only one.) Really Phelps deserve three medals: the 100 meter butterfly, 200 meter butterfly and 200 meter freestyle. He is not the best at anything else. As for the medleys, no other sport has them. Indeed no other sport has strokes. (Who invented the butterfly?) It's as if Usain Bolt was entered in the 100 meters-while-waiving plus the straight 100 meters.

This double counting is especially annoying given the presence of the dolphin kinc, which is used in every race regardless of stroke. On the initial dive and with every turn, the swimmers abandon the assigned stroke and scurry under the water. As the announcers made clear, Phelps gets a tremendous advantage from the dolphin kick. Maybe they should add that stroke.

Olympics: the Great Saytiev

Michael Phelps has been hailed as the greatest Olympian on the strength of his eight gold medals. Phelps is great, no doubt about it, and I guess he is the greatest swimmer. But basing conclusions on medal counts is ridiculous. Swimmers by nature can get multiple medals. There are four races at some of the same distances using different strokes. The same guy can get three four medals by doing the same 100 or 200 meter freestyle: two individual races, the freestyle relay and medly relays. The result is multiple medal winners proliferate. Just this year, at least 30 swimmers won more than one medal. Five swimmers won at least four medals.
Compare that to track and field where just two men (Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis) have ever won four medals in the same games. And a wrestler or boxer can win just one. There are no relays, leta alone multiple relays, to boost the medal total. So counting medals by itself is a a ridiculous measure.

If one is searching for greatness, consider Buvaysa Saytiev. Today, Saytiev won his third gold medal in freestyle wrestling. Only the Soviet Union’s Alexander Medved, who won in 1964, 1968 and 1972, has done the same. Medved has the advantage because he won in three different weight classes. But Saytiev, unlike Medved, had to beat fields that include wrestlers from former Soviet republics, which now have their own terrific teams. In the finals, Saytiev beat Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan. One bronze-medalist is from Belarus. (The other is from Bulgaria.) There are great wrestlers from Georgia, Armenia and Kazahkstan. It's as if the USA basketball team was broken up and there were individual teams from California, New York and Ohio competing with the U.S. team. In general it's impossible to compare athletes in different sports. But in terms of outdistancing the field, Saytiev stands with Phelps.