Bolt named top international athlete

Duty Honor Country said:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3804774

I just don't see how Phelps did not win. Bolt wins one individual gold, two relay gold metals and world records in all three. Phelps wins 8 golds (5 individual and 3 relays), 7 world records (4 of them personal) and one Olympic record.

I just don't see how Phelps did not win it besides an anti American bias.
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I saw something on the 2 minute drill on espn with them discussing this. The guy that supported Bolt thought it was because Michael Phelps had 3 relays, and wasn't even the anchor leg in them. And he didn't swim the "sprint" events... He didn't swim the 25 free, 50 free, etc. So he thought Bolt was faster.
 
so you take away the relays and the man has 5 golds, 4 world records and 1 Olympic records to Bolts 2 gold and 2 Olympic records (taking away the relay). What Phelps did was harder. The 400 IM requires a swimmer to do 4 strokes. He won gold in the 200 IM too. Then the 200m butterfly, 200m free and the 100 fly. How much more does he have to do to beat a guy who ran two 100m and a 200 sprint? Runners will always have more glory than swimmers.
 
Oh trust me... A 50 meter freestyle is just about 50 more times as difficult than a 50 meter dash... I was a lifeguard for 3 years, I guarded the high school state champion swim team (Bob Jones High) I KNOW swimming is harder than running. I was just playing a little Devil's Advocate. I, for one, have no doubt that Michael Phelps is the most athletic man we know of right now. What he did won't be done again for a long time, if ever again. I completely disagree with the international choice, but like 13 said, it's typical anti-American bias. The world doesn't want to see us do any better than we already have. ;) I say it's a tribute to America and Phelps personally that they had to go with a runner that only broke two records to find someone to "equal" Phelps.
 
MontyB said:
It could just be that Bolt is from a tiny country with next to no resources and he managed to do the equivalent of Phelps achievements in the athletics field.
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I think thats the correct answer why Phelps didnt win. It wasn't that Phelps won more medals, it was that Bolt did it with so little resources from a tiny speck of a country. The challenge of Bolt was greater than that of Phelps, which why it was considered more extrodinairy. Nobody expected Bolt to win, and everybody expected Phelps to.

And I saw Bolt 400m run live on TV, it was nothing sort of amazing. Not only did he smash the record he was actually waving 'goodbye' to the others racers as he totally left them in his dust cloud.
 
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that is a good point about the size of the country. either way both athletes recieve respect from everyone, both are amazing. olympics should bring humanity togather lets not make this a big deal:)
 
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