He is not the "best" olympian ever. He just happens to compete in a sport where his ONE skill can be entered into seemingly dozens of events.

I have no interest.

and he's good at what he does, but I'm in agreement. I've got Phelps Fatigue

NBC keeps calling him the "most-decorated" Olympic athlete! Sure, he's larded with gold like no other, but as far as I know, Larissa Latynina is still tops with 18 medals. Phelps will have to wait until London to take that title.

I am so unbelievably sick of the excessive coverage of women's beach volleyball. Hours upon hours of live primetime simply because they're wearing teeny little bikinis. I have no problem with skimpy uniforms when they serve a purpose (swimmers of either sex wouldn't get very far wearing sweatsuits in the pool, obviously), or when they're equal-oppportunity skimpy, but when the male volleyball players are managing to "struggle" through their games just fine wearing baggy shorts and practical sleeveless shirts, the blatant, pathetic sexism becomes obvious.

Either the bikinis are vital to the athletes' performance (in which case the men should logically wear something similar)...or they're just for cheesecake purposes (in which case, either give us equal hours of mostly-naked men for matching beefcake or make the girls put on some clothes.)

And it might be nice to show some of the more unusual sports for once, instead of live coverage of every meal Walsh and May-Treanor eat and every tourist attraction they see and extreme HD closeups every time they brush sand off their bikini-clad rears. There are plenty of other events that are interesting despite the lack of cleavage.

At least Phelps is doing something epic and amazing, not just brushing sand off his ass. And you actually know who he's swimming against. In volleyball, the only time you realize there's anyone else out there besides the US women is when the score is on the screen.

The big relay celebration happened after the 4x100 freestyle relay. The 4x100 medley relay will be swum later in the week. I think Phelps is deserving of the coverage, and the TV ratings bear that out. Swimming will be over after the first week of the Games; the second week will feature other sports.

I'm just turning on the Olympics occasionally, and I guess they just assume I know everything about Phelps already. They say he's won 11 gold medals, but before the Olympics they said he could win a total of eight gold medals. Did they add three more events just for Phelps? What's the story?

Phelps is aiming for 8 gold medals in one Olympic Games, which would be a record.

His record 11 golds are a career total from Athens and Beijing.

BLECH! Glad I'm not the only one who's sick of seeing that. I watched the boxing matches on one of the "lesser" channels last night instead of seeing whats-their-names again.

I'm tired of hearing about him too. Also, somebody at NBC should notice that he isn't really all that eloquent, so Andrea whatshername can stop asking him the same lame questions after every race.

BTW when are idiot reporters going to realize that whenever there is a team event or a relay, the "other" guys are not trying to win because one of the team members is shooting for some special individual glory. They are trying to win because they want to win for themselves. It was a while ago, but in Denver when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup with Ray Bourque on the team, the first question all of the local sports guys would ask every player they interviewed was "How do is it feel to win the cup for Ray?". They probably couldn't have cared less whether he got a cup or not.

As a pool rat, I must admit that its nice to see "my sport" getting so much coverage. What Phelps is doing is pretty special even though it is all just swimming. Each stroke is very technical and takes many years to perfect. To be world class in more than one stroke is pretty amazing. For those of you who don't want to be like Mike, its just a few more days and then swimming will once again be banished to the back page of the sports section.

name an olympic sport that does not measure one skill. Running? jumping? throwing? tumbling? diving?

Rinkrat19 commented up above about how much coverage it is getting. I too think I've watched a little too much of it (although I do enjoy watching Mrs. Walsh stylishy spike balls off the opposing girl's heads or to wherever they aren't)

One of the weird things about it is whenever there is a stoppage in play (side out, point scored, mandatory timeout, etc.) they start up with some old timey rock & roll music (and here's the really weird part) & due to the quickness in getting the ball to whomever is going to serve the music only lasts for 5 or 6 seconds. You get 5 secs of 'Help Me Rhonda' & then at the next stoppage 8 secs of 'Wipeout', and so on.

I think it (the music) detracts from the competition & makes baech volleyball a little cheesy.

Another thing is that whenever May/Walsh are interviewed & asked how they beat some team they will mention a few reasons but they will never mention the real reason: Walsh is a great blocker/hitter & is just too tall & athletic for the other players. That's why they win all the time. Give May another woman her size & they wouldn't have 104 wins in a row (IMO). Give Walsh our best setter off the indoor team & they could still have that winning streak.

From King's column:

"He manages to project an average-guy persona without any phony aw-shucks bull, and to express his massive and well-earned self-confidence without coming across as an arrogant jerk."

This, Ms. Sey, is how an elite athlete behaves.

Y'know, one who is humble & grateful for his blessings - and who wins a crapload of gold medals (while owning several world records)...

...As opposed to one who breaks a femur and spends the rest of her life delusionally whining that she was abused, really an "elite" athlete, etc etc.

FYI.

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To terry: "One skill"?!?!

Have you ever even watched swimming - or tried to do it yourself?

The backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and breaststroke all require different preparations and skill sets. That's why many swimmers are capable of all...but usually an elite swimmer is best at only ONE stroke.

That makes Phelps's success all the more impressive...