Sports you'd remove from the Olympics

Vertigo1 said:
Don't get me started on Phelps. As Steve Ovett said in the BBC studio, swimming is the only sport which lends itself to participating in lots of events. Let's face it, the strokes aren't that different and if you're good at one of them then you're likely to be good at the others.

Yes Phelps is a phenomenal swimmer but calling him the "greatest Olympian" as a result of him obtaining more gold medals than anyone else is offensive to the likes of Steve Redgrave, whose Olympic achievements far exceed that of Phelps IMO.

As for the "donkey jumping" :D, whilst I agree it's rubbish I do accept many people like it. My point is that it's not an Olympic sport as far too much depends on the horse.
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The fact remains, he beat other swimmers who focussed/specialized solely on a particular stroke. If they are so similar, shouldn't other swimmers be able to compete to a similar standard as Phelps in more of the strokes?
 
Ok well obviously there are some differing opinions on whether the range of events in swimming are more or less diverse than other sports but I still maintain that Redgrave's was the greater achievement. Winning gold in the same sport over the course of five Olympics and 20 years makes him the greatest Olympian in my book, and indeed he was referred to as such in Sydney.
 
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Vertigo1 said:
Ok well obviously there are some differing opinions on whether the range of events in swimming are more or less diverse than other sports but I still maintain that Redgrave's was the greater achievement. Winning gold in the same sport over the course of give Olympics and 20 years makes him the greatest Olympian in my book, and indeed he was referred to as such in Sydney.
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Redgrave is the greatest, Phelps is the winningest
 
Vertigo1 said:
Ok well obviously there are some differing opinions on whether the range of events in swimming are more or less diverse than other sports but I still maintain that Redgrave's was the greater achievement. Winning gold in the same sport over the course of give Olympics and 20 years makes him the greatest Olympian in my book, and indeed he was referred to as such in Sydney.
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Birgit Fischer achieved that too with golds in canoeing at all olympics from '88 to '04. I believe a couple of members of the Hungarian fencing team accomplished it too back in the '30s to '50s.
 
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NuclearWinter said:
Birgit Fischer achieved that too with golds in canoeing at all olympics from '88 to '04. I believe a couple of members of the Hungarian fencing team accomplished it too back in the '30s to '50s.
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Just looked her up, 8 golds and 4 silvers over a span of 6 olympics. Thats some record. In both single and team events too.
 
funnily enough, on the bbc they just showed a top10 of their olympic icons and she wasn't even mentioned? that's one hell of a record she's got....

redgrave was top of course. others included bolt (with just one gold to his name :p), johnson, jesse owens, , spitz, phelps, some gymnast etc,etc. this woman should be above all of those.... :confused:
 
marc2003 said:
funnily enough, on the bbc they just showed a top10 of their olympic icons and she wasn't even mentioned? that's one hell of a record she's got....

redgrave was top of course. others included bolt (with just one gold to his name :p), johnson, jesse owens, , spitz, phelps, some gymnast etc,etc. this woman should be above all of those.... :confused:
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Wouldn't do them any good to show up Steve Redgrave with someone at his own sport would it?

Edit: Sorry I was thinking of this woman Elisabeta Lipă, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeta_Lipă
 
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Saytan said:
how about someone like rebecca romero, a winner in two different sports?
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Wasn't an Olympic winner in rowing though.

Switching sports and being successful in both is undeniably impressive but then rowing and cycling are both all about leg power so, in that regard, they are very similar.
 
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