My Michael Phelps rant...

[Brad]

It's more of a semantics issue. Instead of GREATEST, they should be saying MOST DECORATED. Greatest is a subjective term, and can be argued till the cows come. You cannot argue that he has won the most medals of any other Olympian. Of course, seeing as a number of those are from team events (the relays) it does get into a gray area in a way.

Best answer in this entire thread!

[Hector]

Best answer in this entire thread!

Agreed.

[Adam West]

Most decorated is definitely the best way to describe him....best Olympian ever will always be up for debate. It's also difficult to compare Olympians from different decades. I do think it is pretty amazing that he won Gold in every single event he competed in 4 years ago and medaled in every single event except one this time around. I would be really impressed to see a track star win Gold in a 100M, 200M, 400M, 1500M, etc. because that is what Michael Phelps has done. He has won at short distances and long distances also using a variety of strokes. He is competing against athletes who might specialize in only one event like the 200M Butterfly and another in a 200M Freestyle and beats all of them. A superior track star could rack up the medals of Phelps by participating and winning runs and relays of various lengths. He definitely receives props for winning so many medals at various distances and strokes especially going up against everyone else in the world some who can only do one or two events well