Cannibal72 said:
It's about keeping the rowers in time (really hard) and, most importantly, in their lane. There's obviously slight disparities in strength, which could lead to the boat drifting to one side or the other as the rowers pull in different sides, so the cox's job is to tell certain rowers to ease off a bit or go a bit harder to keep the boat straight.
Sounds like what the mods in this forum do.
Since 2004, when Phelps won his first Olympic race, only 12 countries have won more golds. Thus, Phelps is No. 13 on the gold-medal list since Athens. Among the many that don't have Phelps beat: Spain, Brazil, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Cuba, Greece, Romania and the Netherlands.
Stop with this talk about "well Phelps is a swimmer and they have so many more opportunities for gold so it's not that great!" Just stop it. Do you want to sound like a moron? Then take that stance. Why? Because the most gold medals won by any other swimmer is nine. Only four swimmers in history have more than five gold medals. If you take the six most decorated swimmers in history behind Phelps, and add up their gold medals from individual races (not relays), they combine for 13, the same total Phelps has won by himself. If it were so easy, everybody'd be doing it. Truth is, nobody's close.
Starting in Athens, Phelps has medaled in 44% of every men's swimming event at the Olympics. There have been 64 races, Phelps has competed in 29 and medaled in 28.
Argentina is home to the greatest soccer player in the world (Messi), one of the all-time soccer greats (Maradona), two U.S. Open tennis champions (Juan Martin Del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini), NBA champs (Manu Ginobili), a two-time major champion in golf (Angel Cabrera), a slew of other great athletes and a women's field hockey team that consistently ranks as one of the best in the world. It's competed in 24 of the 28 Summer Olympics. In other words, Argentina is a place that values sport (and has been home to many-a big-time athlete). Michael Phelps has more five more gold medals than Argentina has in 116 years of Olympic participation.
With Phelps from Baltimore and Ledecky from the D.C. suburb Bethesda, not to mention a slew of other swimmers who won golds on relay, Maryland has won more gold medals than any country except China and, obviously, the United States. The Old Line State is the ninth-smallest in the nation.
http://www.foxsports.com/olympics/gallery/28-incredible-facts-about-michael-phelps-28-olympic-medals-23-golds-count-how-many-081316
Who’s the greatest Olympian of all time?
Phelps?
Bolt?
Someone else?
I admit to being biased towards swimming, but between the first two, I’ll take Phelps. Bolt is basically a one-trick pony, the fastest man on earth, but not anything else. Phelps at least has shown his dominance in multiple strokes, and has excelled at distances ranging from 100 to 400 meters, establishing himself both in sprinting and middle distance. He has also competed in the maximum number of events that is basically physically possible, pushing the envelope in a way Bolt hasn't.
I think the main point Bolt has in his favor is that everyone can run, so just about anyone who has great talent as a sprinter will be discovered and end up competing. Whereas many people never learn to swim, and some great potential pool talent may never have been realized. Just look at the hype than Manuel gets for being the first African-American woman to win a swimming Gold. It shouldn’t have taken this long.
But I discount somewhat that Bolt has won the 100 three times in a row. Not just because Phelps won an event four times in a row (and another three times in a row), but because that sets up an unfair comparison with earlier Olympians. For most of its modern history, the Olympics has truly been for amateurs, which means you couldn’t support yourself by competing, as you can today. A lot of great athletes never won the same event for a second, third or fourth time probably because they couldn’t afford to train for multiple Olympics.
And both Phelps and Bolt are highly specialized. I certainly wouldn’t regard either as the greatest athlete in any conversation, because there is so much more to athleticism than pure speed. I think any decathlon winner is a better athlete, and for the greatest combination of athletic qualities, I’d probably take boxing: speed, strength, stamina, agility, hand-eye coordination, courage…all of these come into play.
This isn't cycling where a sprinter can even win when he's not in shape (although the opposite can also be true in cycling).
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