I was having a chat with a friend last week when the conversation somewhat inevitably turned to the Olympics. And as we happened to be swimming at the time, the topic rather appropriately drifted in the direction of Michael Phelps.
To label him the greatest Olympian of all time is unfair on those who only have the one chance of getting it right- James Calvert
My friend, let’s call him John because that’s his name, was questioning the popular claim that the aforementioned American swimmer was the greatest Olympian of all time.
But how can you question it, I asked, when he has won 22 medals, 18 of them gold?
His argument was simple. While there is no disputing Phelps’ brilliance, part of the fact that he was able to win so many medals in the first place was that he was entering so many different races.
In the London Olympics alone he entered no less than seven different races, giving him a far greater chance of adding to his medal tally than if he had, for example, been just a specialist butterfly swimmer.
And I realised John has a point.
To give you a simple comparison, British sailor Ben Ainslie has won medals at five different Olympics, starting off with a silver in Atlanta and following that up with gold every four years since.
His total of five medals is less than a quarter of what Phelps has won. However, does that make his achievement any less brilliant?
I think not, especially when you bear in mind that taking part in the Laser sailing competition means contesting 11 gruelling races over eight days.
Unlike Phelps, Ainslie’s schedule meant he could only ever go to an Olympics with the hope of winning a single gold. And four times out of five he did just that.
He had no fallback events to turn to, no team event where he could be driven to gold by his mates. Just him, on his own, in an event that takes more than a week to conclude.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to take anything away from Phelps. He is undoubtedly the greatest swimmer of all time and the very fact that he was able to compete in so many different versions of the sport only serves to emphasise the point.
However, I think to label him the greatest Olympian of all time is more than a little bit unfair on those competitors who train hard for four years knowing they only have the one chance of getting it right.
And then do.
Bolt from the Red
One of the most interesting side stories to come out of the second week of the Olympics revolved around a certain Usain Bolt, the fastest man on the planet.
Actually I would dispute that title. He is undoubtedly the fastest athlete on the planet, but fastest man? Who knows if there is some young lad living in a remote village somewhere who spends his days chasing gazelles and who can do the 100 metres in nine seconds.
Unlikely and improbable, but not impossible.
But anyway, I digress. Back to the point.
Within hours of winning his second successive Olympic gold for the 100 metres, Bolt was talking to the press about his desire to move into football.
With Manchester United.
“People think I’m joking, but if Alex Ferguson called me up and said, ‘OK let’s do this, come and have a trial’, it would be impossible for me to say no,” he said.
Now obviously I’ve never seen Bolt play football but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he was actually quite good at it. Not surprised in the slightest.
There is a breed of human, and we all had at least one of these in our circle of school friends, who is naturally sporty. That one person who could try their hand at just about anything from football to tennis to athletics and be impressively good in all of them.
From the little I know about Bolt, he seems to slot quite nicely into that category of irritatingly talented people. Making the transition from sprint star to football player would certainly not be easy.
Being capable of putting in a supreme amount of effort for less than 10 seconds doesn’t mean you would be able to go at a more sedate pace for an hour-and-a-half. As my wife will doubtlessly agree.
There are also substantial differences between being fast on purposely-built running tracks and trying to sprint on a muddy English football pitch while a six-foot-six defender tries to kick lumps out of your shins.
But despite these obvious difficulties in making the transition, Bolt himself seems confident he’s got what it takes to make the grade: “I would not take up the challenge if I didn’t think I was good enough. I am a very accomplished player and know I could make a difference.”
So will it happen? I would still put it down as a long shot, to be honest. But Rio Ferdinand has said on Twitter he will help Bolt get the trial if he really wants it.
And Sir Alex has always enjoyed a challenge, and turning a sprint star into a footballer would certainly fall into that category.
Even if the experiment fails and he managed to play an entire season without scoring any goals or even setting any up, he would only be as bad as Stuart Downing. And he’s an England international, lest we forget.
Women on top
I’m not going to pretend I’ve really enjoyed the Olympic football because I haven’t.
In fact, truth be told, I’ve hardly watched any of the games, and those I have seen have been decent but certainly not brilliant.
Even so, I couldn’t help but laugh as Team GB crashed out in the quarter-finals on penalties. An international team with English players and an English manager getting through to the last eight of a tournament and then losing on spot kicks? It’s like a stuck record.
On a positive note, however, I did catch a couple of the women’s games and I have to say I was extremely impressed by the standard of football.
It did lack a bit of the physical hustle and bustle of the men’s game, but it more than made up for that with extra helpings of skill and finesse.
I have my doubts if it will ever be able to break through and become the mainstream sport it probably deserves to be, but in a way that’s probably better for the women’s game as it avoids it being polluted by the financial nonsense that now dictates the men’s version.
Bum’s the word
It took me the best part of week to figure it out, but I finally put my finger on the common denominator behind Britain’s Olympic gold rush: sitting on your bottom.
Sure, there have been Team GB successes in disciplines like tennis, triathlon, shooting and heptathlon. And worthy winners they all were too, none more so than Sheffield lass Jessica Ennis.
However, the vast majority of Britain’s golds have come from sports that involve, to varying degrees, being seated – rowing, horse riding, cycling and sailing.
Does it mean anything? Most probably not.
But an interesting little observation nevertheless.
Rank outsiders
Another special moment in the history of the Fifa rankings system last week when England clawed their way up to third in the table.
That’s their highest position ever, and further proof that the rankings are nothing more than a complicated mathematical joke.
Apparently, England are better than Uruguay, the country that won the last Copa America, and Italy, who reached the final of Euro 2012, beating England on the way.
Scrap it now Fifa. The credibility ship has sailed.
sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade