Greatest Olympian ever?
After Lord Coe refused to call Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time, Channel 4 News tries to find out who is. It’s the stuff of pub debates – so have your say and vote in our poll.
London 2012: Team GB and Channel 4 News tweets
Swimmer Michael Phelps has won a career total of 18 gold medals, making him the most decorated Olympian ever.
Despite this enormous tally, earlier in the week the London 2012 chairman said he did not consider Phelps to be the greatest of all.
“Self-evidently, by the medal tally, he’s the most successful,” said Lord Coe.
“My personal view is that I’m not sure he is the greatest. But he’s certainly the most successful, that goes without saying.”
Coe added: “In the lead-up to these Games we have talked about the great British pub game of picking who is going to be lighting the cauldron and all that sort of stuff.
“This is the global pub game: Who is the greatest Olympian of all time? It is self-evident, the guy has won how many medals, 19? It is a pretty good haul, but whether he is the greatest, I don’t know.
“But you have to say he’s up there. But whether he is the greatest, in my opinion, probably not.”
I think for me it would be Steve Redgrave, but I’m probably biased. The fact that he did it for so long, over five Olympics, with so much adversity. Greg Searle
Lord Coe chose not to name an alternative, but Channel 4 News has been asking the good and great of London 2012 – and you. Should it be Jesse Owens whose sporting success (four golds at the 1836 Games in Berlin) came to represent freedom in the face of Hitler’s Germany? Or Sir Steve Redgrave, Britain’s rowing hero who has five golds to his name? And how about Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia’s famous marathon man?
Rower Greg Searle, who won bronze in the men’s eights at these Games, told us: “I think for me it would be Steve Redgrave, but I’m probably biased.
“The fact that he did it for so long, over five Olympics, with so much adversity – he had illness and injury… he dealth with all the things that were thrown at him and kept coming back and winning makes Steve Redgrave, for me, the greatest Olympian ever.”
You can have your say and vote below in our live blog. We’ve picked the top names you’ve been tweeting as your greatest – which one is the ultimate Olympian?
