Who was better in his respective sport: Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps

[heloder]

How can anyone be better in their respective sport than Usain Bolt was? He came in and shattered world records that are never shattered. He lined up next to the greatest sprinters of all time and made them all look like amateurs. Absolutely nobody in the world, from any era, can touch him.

 

[Graves The Elder]

I'd say Phelps was more athletic
but I'd say Bolt was more explosive

 

[empsim]

who will still care about bolt when the next guy with even better genetics and even better juice comes along and sets a new record?

same kinda goes for phelphs though so idk

 

[Corona]

Phelps because despite his fatal pots addiction he still was the best.

 

[Madmick]

Did anybody even bother watching the events these guys competed in? Bolt was absolutely crushing and embarrassing his competition, whereas phelps was winning by millimeters and hundreths of a second in many of his events.

On top of that, phelps was never the fastest swimmer, refusing to compete in either the 50m freestyle or the 100m freestyle, which is sort of the swimming equivalent to the 100m and 200m sprint.

The reason phelps was able to rack up the many medals that he did is because he was the most diverse/versatile swimmer with insane cardio/endurance; his butterfly was among the best in the world, while his breaststroke and backstroke were just a tiny bit below that (but still great) so he could dominate the medley races.

Sprinting doesn’t have as many convoluted events, it’s just running as fast as you can over the designated distance, and bolt did that better than anyone ever.

Actually, Phelps was crushing and embarrassing his competition similar to Ledecky, but he was only 17 at the time (already the world's fastest at 15). Then he was forced to diversify. Bolt was never forced to diversify. He never ran hurdles. He never broadened to the Long Jump or the <400m distance. He was a one-trick pony who was very, very good at that trick.

Phelp's weakest stroke, by far, as a natural swimmer, was his breaststroke. He deliberately improved that to the point where he was putting up the fastest Medley splits in that stroke in the final heats of world-class events. This is only further testimony to his greatness. You don't know anything about swimming, obviously, but from what you've opined, you don't possess much knowledge of the underlying disciplines that are relevant to sport in general, either.

Dominance in one swimming event carries over to the others so it's easier to rack up medals. Whereas a sprinter is not going to win any distance over 200 meters.

Carl Lewis is the greatest American Olympian.

If we're including dirty Olympians...

I'll go with Bolt purely because his 100m record will be harder to beat than any Phelps record.

Will it?

You think that someone is going to notch 9 gold medals in a single Olympics before someone breaks Bolt's record?

 

[bad seed]

If we're including dirty Olympians...

Yes, he's tarnished his legacy but judging solely on accomplishments he tested clean for he is still American GOAT. Sure he could've been dirty for all of them but speculation like that just makes everyone suspect.