Phelps officially world's greatest athlete ever

In Spitz’s day, swimmers were amateurs; they had to have day jobs to support themselves. Today, they’re professionals and can devote all their time to training. The overall level of competition has never been higher.

When talent pools get deeper and training more scientific, it gets harder to dominate. But that’s what Phelps is doing. For four years, every other swimmer in the world in his events had been working to beat him. The gap between him and everyone else should be narrowing. Instead, it’s gotten bigger.

Phelps doesn’t just win, he mostly blows away the competition. He won the 400-meter individual medley by more than two seconds and the 200-meter freestyle by just under two seconds — an eternity in a sport in which races are often decided by hundredths of a second. The 200-meter butterfly was closer — .63 seconds — but his goggles filled with water when he dove in and he couldn’t see the entire race. This can be a problem when it’s time to hit the wall and turn around, but he managed it. His time was another world record, but afterward he said he was a little disappointed about the goggles because he could have gone faster. Of course, he won the 100 butterfly by the closest of margins (.01 seconds), but we'll forgive him that. Oh, and in the butterflies and medley, he didn’t even wear that high-tech Speedo LZR swimsuit that’s gotten so much publicity. He didn't need it.

And it is that total dominance that makes him the greatest ever. It’s not just this year, either. Phelps was three months shy of his 16th birthday and five months past the 2000 Sydney Olympics when he became the youngest male ever to set a world record. The record was in the 200-meter butterfly, a race he has dominated more than any other. He has nine of the 10 fastest times posted in that race and 14 of the top 25.

In the 200-meter individual medley, he has 15 of the top 25 times. In the 400-meter IM, he has 12 of the top 25. He hasn’t lost a major race in the last two years and he’s lost only once in the last three years, and that loss was when he decided to take a shot at the backstroke, which is not his specialty. It was at the 2006 Pan-Pacific championships, and even then he took silver.

In his three specialties, he’s undefeated for three full years. He swims multiple races each day in different disciplines, and he never loses.

No one in no sport has ever been as good. No one has ever been so far ahead of his competition in so many events. No one has ever been better than Michael Phelps, the World’s Greatest Athlete now and forever.

Olympics Michael Phelps' successful chase to a record eight gold medals Star breaks fellow American Mark Spitz's 36-year old Olympic record Day Event Result Saturday 400 individual medley Gold Sunday 400 free relay Gold Monday 200 free Gold Tuesday 200 butterfly Gold Tuesday 800 free relay Gold Thursday 200 individual medley Gold Friday 100 butterfly Gold Saturday 400 medley relay Gold

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