The Wall Street Journal published a pretty nice article about Michael Phelps today.
why.
Well, Michael Phelps' name was written into the Olympic history four years ago, when he won 8 gold medals at one Olympics in Beijing. This year, he became the most decorated Olympian in history by winning his 19th medal yesterday.
why it matters.
Since swimming is my sport, it is expected of me to consider Michael Phelps to be the best athlete of all time. He really is. Many of my friends argue that it's much easier to win that many medals in swimming than in, I don't know, track and field. They say that it's all just swimming. But the difference between 400 IM and 1500 free is as huge as the difference between 110 hurdles and the long jump. Michael swam the maximum number of races that any swimmer is allowed to (8) - and he won all of them (+ broke the world record in 7 of them).
try it.
If an athlete ran in the following races: 100, 200, 400, 800, 4x100 and 4x400, you can already win 6 gold medals. Find two more and you can make history, too.
I'm not saying it's easy, I'm just saying that it's possible in other sports too, not just in swimming. The problem is, nobody like Michael has ever appeared in other sport.