Should Michael Phelps compete again in 2012?

[boybi]

Do you think Michael Phelps should retire from the Olympics after Beijing 2008?

[empy]

i think he should, and believe he will. in his last interview he talked about resting, taking some time off, and then starting to train for the world championships.

he's still young, and already some of the haters here are saying that he's not as good as athletes like Carl Lewis who were able to dominate three Olympics...sabi nila he's not their match because he's only competed and done well in two

[empy]

i think he should, and believe he will. in his last interview he talked about resting, taking some time off, and then starting to train for the world championships.

he's still young, and already some of the haters here are saying that he's not as good as athletes like Carl Lewis who were able to dominate three Olympics...sabi nila he's not their match because he's only competed and done well in two

[shadow]

absolutely!!! he's still young and I think he can still dominate the nest Olympic but my only concern is will he still have the same drive?

[daimengrui]

The guy is just 23, he shows no signs of being senile. It's not a matter of he should. He definitely would. The question is by how many golds this time. 8? 9?

His career is FAR from retirement. Carl Lewis was 23 when he won Gold in his first Olympics. While Phelps was just 15 in his first Olympic try (where he didn't win anything as I suppose this was for exposure). Yup definitely not a match Phelps is the better athlete AFAIC.

[niky]

The guy is just 23, he shows no signs of being senile. It's not a matter of he should. He definitely would. The question is by how many golds this time. 8? 9?

His career is FAR from retirement. Carl Lewis was 23 when he won Gold in his first Olympics. While Phelps was just 15 in his first Olympic try (where he didn't win anything as I suppose this was for exposure). Yup definitely not a match Phelps is the better athlete AFAIC..

QFT... hahaha... But you can't really compare those two... Carl Lewis was great, but the competition in running is tough...

Phelps just doesn't have any competition in his league at this point... He's so much faster than the rest that it's embarrassing... even when he leaps off the blocks slowly, he's still a few seconds ahead by the finish line.

Only time will tell if Phelps has the same lasting power as Lewis... but he's already eclipsed the medal record.

[empy]

the BS that i hear too is that it's easier for Phelps because swimming takes less toll on one's body. track and field is supposedly much more difficult.

such garbage. well, what about the gymnastics all-around competition and the decathlon? multiple grueling events back-to-back-to-back. so forget Carl Lewis, the best Olympic athletes should be Bruce Jenner and Nadia Comaneci!

the point is - compare each athlete to the competition he has. is Tiger Woods less dominant than Michael Jordan because his sport is "less physically demanding"? is less great?

[daimengrui]

the BS that i hear too is that it's easier for Phelps because swimming takes less toll on one's body. track and field is supposedly much more difficult.

such garbage. well, what about the gymnastics all-around competition and the decathlon? multiple grueling events back-to-back-to-back. so forget Carl Lewis, the best Olympic athletes should be Bruce Jenner and Nadia Comaneci!

the point is - compare each athlete to the competition he has. is Tiger Woods less dominant than Michael Jordan because his sport is "less physically demanding"? is less great?

Actually the measure of an athletes greatness is usually counted in the degree of his impact to the sport. In such a comparison the only big advantage Phleps have against Carl Lewis is his relative impact on the sport of swimming and how he electrified the US population to the sport. If you watched Fox news/ CNN everybody was glued to the TV because of him and everybody wanted to get into the water. Carl Lewis has none of that impact the way Phelps have. Tiger woods is another story but history will tell us his impact was not that all that big.

Only Michael Jordan in my book is the better athlete than Phelps. Because of his relative big impact on basketball to the US and the world. When he left the NBA there was a huge void that couldn't be filled for some years and even until now.

It's no use comparing apples with oranges but you can compare them by how far an apple exceeded the expectations vs other apples against how far an orange has exceeded expectations against other oranges. In that sense you get the impact of the athlete to the Sport, the Community, the Nation and the World.

Michael Phelps is great on several accounts. Swimming is an indirect competitive sport. You do not really compete against other swimmers you compete for lap TIME. 7 world records fell in his hands in one Olympic Games to say he hasn't so much competition is idiotic we all know when swimmers race they couldn't care less looking at their opponents -- simply a waste of time. What they do compete for is the fastest swim time and as much as possible break WR because thats the only way you can be sure of a win.

Second he can win individually and win and also win as a team. He is a team player and that is a hallmark of a great athlete. Being able to work in a team.

[empy]

t*e na naman tong mga dobol fosts

[fourtheboys96]

phelps is a swimming great.

call me a hater, but calling him the greatest olympian based on the number of golds won is just not right.

his sport allowed him to participate in many events just like carl lewis, jesse owens, mark spitz etc.

however, there are a lot of athletes out there who dominated their sport in multiple olympics but only one gold per olympic.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Do you think Michael Phelps should retire from the Olympics after Beijing 2008?

You heard from the man himself, "Records were made to be broken". He's not done until he says he's done.

It's too premature to say he's the greatest athlete of our time. But, consider his accomplishments with this one Olympics:

- Gold in 8 out of 8 events. Sweep.

-7 of those 8 events resulted in new world records. Those who say he had it easy are on drugs. It's not like he waltzed into the 8 golds. Not with 7 new world records. He had stiff competition which included himself.

- He has 14 golds in two Olympiads. He's probably good for at least 2 more Olympics although I don't expect him to duplicate his feat in Beijing. I do expect him to have the most Olympic gold medals of any individual athlete when he retires. Only then will I decide if he's the greatest athlete of our time.