by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 18^th 2008)

When the twenty-sixth modern Olympic Games ended in Beijing earlier this month – three were cancelled due to World Wars I and II – the twenty-three year-old American swimmer Michael Phelps staked a strong claim to be the greatest Olympian of all time at least in terms of his haul of medals, but who is the greatest of them all? Muhammad Ali only won a single gold medal in Rome in 1960. Denied the most basic courtesy of service at a restaurant in his home country he flung his medal in the nearby river in disgust. He went to become the greatest heavyweight boxer ever. Stripped of his title for refusing to be drafted into the American army for the war in Vietnam, Ali overcame the odds to win back his World Title twice. Ali eventually transcended sport. In later years Parkinson’s Disease robbed him of many of his legendary faculties. Nevertheless, he received a replacement gold medal at the centenary Olympic Games in Atlanta and lit the Olympic flame to open those games, but can an athlete who has won only one title and is considered great for his achievements – phenomenal though they undoubtedly are – after Olympic success really be considered the greatest Olympian ever?

And there are others who have dominated a particular Olympiad. Jesse Owens won four gold medals in 1936 in the 100m: 200m, long jump and 100m relay. It was a phenomenal achievement that took nearly half a century to match, but it was never an Olympic record even in athletics. 1924 saw two performances that were superior to Owens on the track. Despite competing for the most part against each other two of the legendary Flying Finns, the great Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola won more medals than Owens. Nurmi won five gold medals in Paris – a still unmatched haul in one Olympiad in athletics. Nurmi won the 1500m: 5000m, 5000m cross-country, both the individual title and team one and the 3000m team event with Ritola. This was the last Olympiad to involve cross-country as due to heat many competitors ended up in hospital. Finnish officials refused to allow him to defend his Olympic 10000m title as they feared for his health. Nurmi’s misfortune was Ritola’s opportunity. He took Nurmi’s title. An infuriated Nurmi responded by shattering the 10000m world record within days of the end of that Olympiad. And Ritola was no slouch. He won six medals, including four gold – the highest individual tally in track and field by any athlete in a single Olympiad. Four years earlier he turned down the chance to compete in Antwerp’s Olympic Games, because he thought that he wasn’t ready. Ritola also won the 3000m steeplechase and both the team events at 3000m and 5000m cross-country. He also won two silver medals. In the 5000m and 5000m cross-country individual events only Nurmi beat him.

Mildred (Babe) Didrikson was a talented all-round athlete in her own right. She put a marker down for female athletes with success in the javelin and 80m hurdles and silver in the high jump in Los Angeles in 1932, although the manner of her defeat was controversial – she cleared the same height as her team-mate Jean Shiley but was denied a share of the gold medal because the judges disliked her jumping style. After the games Shiley and Didrikson shared their medals. Didrikson wanted to compete in more events, but wasn’t permitted to. She went on to become a talented golfer, but died tragically young of colon cancer aged just forty-five. Sixteen years after Didrikson thrilled Los Angeles, Dutch housewife Fanny Blankers-Koen took post-war London by storm winning four gold medals in the 100m: 200m, 80m hurdles and 4x100m relay – the best ever individual haul by a woman in track and field athletics until the chemically boosted performances of convicted perjurer Marion Jones in Sydney in 2000 – performances that have subsequently been stricken from the Olympic record books. Helsinki was due to host the Olympic Games in 1944, but World War II was still raging at the time. The Finnish capital had to wait another eight years. The games were opened by national heroes, Hannes Kohlemainen – the first Flying Finn, who won the 5000m: 10000m and individual cross-country in 1912 along with silver in the team cross-country event and marathon in 1920 – and Paavo Nurmi. They were treated to a magnificent display of distance running by Czechoslovakia’s greatest Olympian Emil Zátopek who won the 5000m: 10000m and marathon – a combination that has not been repeated in more than half a century. Zátopek also won gold in the 10000m in London in 1948 along with a silver medal in the 5000m. Not even a Flying Finn could match Zátopek’s achievement in Helsinki.

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Impressive as these performances clearly are arguably decathletes and heptathletes have a harder task. In order to win gold they have to master ten disciplines – the 100m: long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, discus, 110m hurdles, pole vault, javelin and 1500m. Britain’s Daley Thompson won gold twice – the only decathlete to do so, but there is arguably an even greater athlete – an athlete who was not satisfied with winning Olympic gold in the decathlon – he won the pentathlon too, which consisted of the long jump, javelin, 200m, discus and 1500m then. In 1912 Native American Jim Thorpe became the one athlete ever to successfully combine decathlon and pentathlon in the Olympic Games. He smashed the decathlon world by over six-hundred points. For good measure he broke the pentathlon world record too. He was presented with his gold medal for the decathlon by the Swedish monarch King Gustav V, who told Thorpe: “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”

Thorpe failed to win medals in the high jump and long jump competitions. Gustav V had a point. In a poll conducted by Associated Press in 1999 Thorpe was chosen the best athlete of the first half of the twentieth century and third best of all time. His achievement of winning both the pentathlon and decathlon titles have never been equalled and never will be. Thorpe was controversially disqualified for breaching the rules on professionalism. He died a lonely death thirty years later. It took another thirty to return his medals to his family. His titles are now shared. However, the man he beat in the decathlon – Hugo Wieslander – showed truly great Olympic spirit. Wieslander refused to accept the gold medal that the International Olympic Committee tried to give to him.[1]

But the Olympic Games include several other sports that offer the opportunity for exceptional individual performances such as gymnastics and swimming. Johnny Weissmuller used Olympic success in 1924 to gain screen fame as the best known ‘Tarzan.’ Almost half a century later the American swimmer Mark Spitz set a seemingly unbreakable record – seven gold medals in the one Olympiad, but before Olympic glory there was failure. Tipped for great things in Mexico in 1968 by himself Spitz failed miserably, if two gold medals and a silver and bronze medal can be considered failure. He more than made up for the personal disappointment in the next Olympiad in München. Spitz’s achievements remain sporting and phenomenal. He won a total of nine gold medals including an Olympic record of seven in one Olympiad. Spitz not only won seven gold medals he broke the world record in every event that he entered – 100m butterfly: 100m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay and 4x200m freestyle relay. It has been thirty-six years since Spitz dominated the pool. Many thought that his achievement would never be matched, let alone beaten, but Michael Phelps had other ideas.

Phelps signalled his intent to become perhaps the greatest ever Olympian four years earlier. Four years ago he won six gold medals in Athens – the 100 and 200m butterfly: 200 and 400m individual medley, the 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay. He also collected two bronze medals in the 200m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay. He set his sights, not only on matching Spitz’s record in Beijing, but aimed to beat it. The great Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe – nicknamed ‘the Thorpedo’ – scoffed at Phelps’ plans, saying it was ‘impossible.’ Phelps proved it wasn’t. Michael Phelps is now the most successful Olympian of all time. On August 17^th he succeeded in relegating Spitz’s achievement to second place. At Beijing’s Olympiad Phelps competed in the same events as in he did in Athens. Spitz set world records in every event. Phelps could not match that – only setting an Olympic record in the 100m butterfly when beating Serbian Milorad Čavić by a hundredth of a second. It was actually by three thousandths of second, but sufficient for Phelps’ time to be rounded down and Čavić’s up. Serbian protests were dismissed as the technology supported the original decision.

Michael Phelps tied the record medal haul for a single Olympiad twice with greater success – a record briefly held by Spitz. Eight years after Spitz’s heroics, the Moscow Olympiad witnessed a historic achievement – the first time an athlete won eight Olympic medals in a single Olympiad. The Soviet Union boasted the best all-round male gymnast in the world at the time Alexander Dityatin. Having got a taste of the Olympic Games in Montreal four years earlier Dityatin was determined to thrill his compatriots in Moscow. Dityatin won gold in the team: all round and the rings. He placed second in the pommel horse: vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars. He capped off his tally with bronze in the floor exercise. Dityatin cannot be considered the greatest, but his achievement deserves to be noted, but while Dityatin is not the greatest Phelps must be given serious consideration. He is undoubtedly the most successful Olympian of all time, but is he the greatest? Only swimming and a few sports such as gymnastics have sufficient events to achieve such tallies. It is very rare in athletics for example and five of his gold medals were won in relays. Phelps has achieved this success in just two Olympiads. Shouldn’t longevity be taken into account as well? His main rivals for the tag of the greatest Olympian in a single games also won team events or relays – well actually there is one Olympic champion who didn’t. Leonidas of Rhodes was the most dominant athlete in the history of the Ancient Olympic Games.[2] When he competed there were only four races. He competed in three of them – the stadion (one circuit of the stadium at Olympia): the diaulos (two circuits) and the hoplitodomus (two or four circuits in armour). In 164BC Leonidas began his assault on the Olympic Games’ record book – performances that deserve mention in any serious debate on the greatest Olympian of all time. Leonidas did all that could be asked of him – of any Olympic champion. He beat his peers. Leonidas won all three events. It was the most successful performance in a single Olympiad up to that point, but Leonidas of Rhodes was far from finished.[3] Phelps still has nine individual gold medals, which is the greatest tally of individual titles in the modern Olympic Games, but it is this enough to be the greatest? If Phelps wishes to be the most successful individual athlete in the history of the Olympic Games he will have to come to London in four years time and win four individual titles.

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[1] For more information on Jim Thorpe’s story see An Olympic Disgrace (Part One) – The Greatest in this issue and An Olympic Disgrace (Part Two) – No Excuse.

[2] See The Ancient Olympiads in this issue for more information on the Ancient Olympic Games.

[3] For further information on Leonidas’ claim to the tag of the greatest ever Olympian see <i>The Greatest Olympian (Part Two) – Longevity and Multiple Titles.