Left to right: Brendan Hansen, Aaron Piersol and Michael Phelps celebrate Sunday.
PHOTO FROM BOCOG

It's 8: Phelps passes Spitz with another gold

Sunday 17th August, 01:19 PM JST

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Wolfpack at 12:10 AM JST - 18th August

Phelps has been really incredible. There is always a bit of luck involved in sports but he has shown versatility and endurance in besting Mark Spitz's long-standing record number of golds.

It's very difficult to compare Phelp's athletic achievements to great ahtelete's in other sports. Most would agree that he is now the obvious choice of greatest swimmer of all time, but it's still hard to argue the case for Phelps as greatest athlete of all time because his career is still not yet over. He has stated that he will not try to go for eight medals again in London in 2012, but should he get four or five more medals (ie. world championships) then that would augment his stature in comparison to other greats in the sports world.

There are many other factors in this debate based on the nature of the various sports. Some include a great deal of subjectivity (ie. gymnastics and figure skating) while others simply measure how fast an athlete is or how far an athlete can throw an object. Some are not nearly as rigorous as others (ie. badmitten and shooting); these are more like skills than athletic endeavors in my opinion. Also, some athlete's are participating in team sports as opposed to individual sports. It can be said that having strong teammates can augment the abilities of an individual. Conversely, weak teammates can make the very good athlete appear to be great by comparison.

If Phelps isn't the greatest of all time at this point in his career, he is definately right there at the top.
mindovermatter at 06:57 AM JST - 18th August

Really, Really, Really surprised to even see this kind of story on JT, let alone at the very top of the page.
flammenwerfer at 09:39 AM JST - 18th August

Yeah whatever.

Anyway how about The Phelps Diet? the man would be a morbidly obese slob if he wasn't the phenomenal athlete that he is, burning away mad calories.

Check out what powered him to 8 golds. Phelps wakes up at about 5am and sits down to a breakfast of three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. He follows that with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelette, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

At lunch, he puts away about half a kilo of pasta, before tucking into two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. To help wash that down he drinks another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

For dinner, Phelps really goes to town, with another half kilo of pasta and an entire pizza for good measure. And don't forget another 1,000 calories in energy drinks.
mindovermatter at 11:25 AM JST - 18th August

Yeah whatever. Anyway how about The Phelps Diet? the man would be a morbidly obese slob if he wasn't the phenomenal athlete that he is, burning away mad calories.

This was in the news about 2 weeks ago...

Most people can't handle these kinds of calories... It depends on your lifestyle...

If all you do is go to work, smoke cigarettes, drink beer & eat... Then you are one of them that will become morbidly obese, if not already...
fatloser at 12:19 PM JST - 18th August

How can people get so excited about this????????????????? He won in a suit that he can't even put on by himself. Mark Spitz won 7 medals in a pair of waterproof underwear. There shouldn't be any comparison to the two champions. The Razor suit will destroy swimming!!! It's bad for sports like corked bats and horseshoes in boxing gloves.
cleo at 12:57 PM JST - 18th August

How can people get so excited about this????????????????? He won in a suit that he can't even put on by himself.

Fair's fair, his rivals were also wearing suits they couldn't put on by themselves, so out of the field of swimmers he swam against in this year's Olympics, he's the fastest swimmer without a doubt.

You have a point about the comparison between Phelps and Spitz, though. With advances in sports training techniques, facilities and yes rubber swimming suits, there has to be some dubiousness in a straight comparison over a distance of 36 years. But in terms of straight numbers, there's no denying that 8 is bigger than 7. And whoever breaks Phelp's record in the future is going to have their work cut out for them, whether they can put their swimsuit on by themselves or have to have it sprayed on.
fatloser at 01:09 PM JST - 18th August

One Chinese girl wore a regular swim suit and didn't win her race, but she won by RESPECT! It is sad to see standards dropped so that a few companies can profit.
rtrhead1 at 08:46 PM JST - 20th August

fatloser, did you watch any of it? fly, no suit. relay, no suit. half of his races didn't even have them on.
rtrhead1 at 08:47 PM JST - 20th August

yeah, the suit in the picture at the top is so tight you can't even see it!
rtrhead1 at 08:47 PM JST - 20th August

by facilities, you mean pools with high tech water?
boobug at 12:02 AM JST - 21st August

Phelps is simply "the" story of these Olympics. Too bad the Japanese media missed the boat with extremely poor coverage of this monumental event. Congratulations to Phelps and the USA for it's unique culture that encourages top rate performances from it's people. Well done !
roomtemperature at 01:49 AM JST - 21st August

Let's go back to his 7th gold.

First.....why were the officials of FINA the biggest cheerleaders of Phelps? They are supposed to be the neutral governing body in this sport.

Phelps won by 100th of second. So how is it that the official timekeeper of the event is the same company that sponsors Phelps since 2004?

Shame on you FINA and IOC to allow athletes' official sponsors to also be the timekeepers of the events where those athletes appear.
boobug at 06:47 AM JST - 21st August

"why were the officials of FINA the biggest cheerleaders of Phelps? They are supposed to be the neutral governing body in this sport."

Because they obviously understood the "magnitutde" of the event and wanted to be apart of Olympic history, much like everyone (well almost everyone) else.

"Phelps won by 100th of second. So how is it that the official timekeeper of the event is the same company that sponsors Phelps since 2004?"

Weak attempt here. You'd be better off arguing about the suits and pool conditions that have allowed for so many world records in the swimming events. But when all is said and done you simply come off sounding like a whiner, a disgruntled non-American that can't accept the results. Sorry, but the rest of us can ! What a performance ! One for the ages, and once again it's the Americans stealing the show. U-S-A !
Nessie at 07:07 AM JST - 21st August

I've heard of passing gas and passing kidney stones, but never of passing spits.
Blue_Tiger at 07:28 PM JST - 21st August

Phelps is a swimming machine!!! Way to go Mike!!!!