memo to CNNSI.com, Michael Phelps

ldsdbomber wrote: Im not demeaning Pinsent, but he didnt get the 5th medal did he. Of course Pinsent is a great olympian but if 2 great olympians competed together and won 4 and one of them won ANOTHER one increasing his span to 4 more years total, I dont see what youre getting at, how can you not put that guy ahead of the other guy? The longevity is the quality I'm arguing makes him great.

Honestly, I wasn't exactly sure what your bottom-line was. I was kind of confused by the one-off names like Owens and Thorpe you subsequently brought up since that had fuck-all to do with longevity. Part of my thing, certainly, is that I apply a bit of a mental asterisk to team/group medals versus individual medals as well as the comptetitive lifespan of the atheletes in many of those sports. (Redgrave was always part of a great team. In much the same way, I have more limited interest in relays versus individual performance.) Retarded perhaps, but that's just the way I look at it. *shrug*

So, yea, we're talking apples and oranges. Sorry...

don't you shrug at me, I get enough of that with Jean Claude at BGG!

ldsdbomber wrote: don't you shrug at me, I get enough of that with Jean Claude at BGG!

Not sure how to respond to being mentioned in the same breath with anyone named Jean Claude [or is that Clearcroak?], so I'll go with "May you spend the rest of your life at the mercies of an Olympic boxing judge!" ;-P

(If you didn't see yesterday's utterly fraudulent Japan-Azerbaijan bantamweight bout, today's Iran-Cuba debacle should seal the deal in everyone's mind that Olympic boxing is actually MORE of a friggin' fraud than pro boxing. I had vague memories that Olympic boxing was kind of a mess [see, e.g., Roy Jones Jr. in '88....] but I didn't think this level of goat-fuckery was actually possible...)

I have to trot out the whole 'national pride' shtick and claim that Clara Hughes has to be mentioned in a convo about best Olympian ever.

Summer Olympic Wins:
1996 Bronze road race.
1996 Bronze Individual Time trial.
**Her bike racing outside of the Olympics is even more impressive; she qualified for 2012 London with a broken back.

Winter Olympics:
2002 5000m Speed skating Bronze.
2006 5000m Speed skating Gold.
2006 Team persuit Silver.
2010 5000m Speed Skating Bronze.

She leads the pack of elite few to medal both the Winter & Summer Olympics. She has 6, Christa Luding of East Germany has 5 (She’s the only Olympian in history to win a medal in both consecutively), Jacob Thams of Norway & Eddie Eagen of the US.

Oh, & fuck that Iranian. Dude was holding, this shit should never happen in the first place. The Iranian went on to say that he “always holds, and he’s never been called on it before”. Ref’s need to call more of these boxers out, they are the ones killing this dead horse sport, I say take away the gloves & head gear, give them a line to stand on and go till your fucking toe comes off the line. Last man/woman standing wins.