Susuto

It is a great achievement but I also agree that with the number of events in the pool that swimmers do have somewhat of an advantage to win more medals. I will also second the opinion that if we see him win over the course of 4-5 Olympic games then yes he could be considered as “greatest” but that would never happen in swimming. There are only 5 people in the world to have won at 5 different Olympics (fencing x2, equestrian, kayaking and rowing) Furthermore I think that events such as the Decathlon, Heptathlon and Pentathlon set a far higher benchmark for overall athletic prowess than simply swimming because of the range of skills that are required to compete plus the fact that these events take 2 days to complete. Take Daley Thompson who won the decathlon gold in 1980 and 1984 and also broke the world record 4 times during his career. I would also rate Nadia Comaneci who scored “perfect” marks in gymnastics - a feat that still has never be beaten.
Besides I know it is difficult not to be a little jingoistic when the Olympics come around.