Michael Phelps' place in the Hall of G.O.A.T.

The Hall of G.O.A.T. is, by definition, an exclusive club. Membership is only extended to the most worthy recipients, whose unquestionable dominance is recognized in bar arguments and can’t be denied by the harshest haters.

How about a quick tour?

Here we are in the basketball section of the Hall, where we have both 23 and 45 jerseys of Michael Jordan. If you notice on the floor, this section was built with the broken backs of John Stockton, Craig Ehlo and Patrick Ewing.

Moving onto the hockey section where “the Great One” stands head and shoulders above everyone else. Wayne Gretzky’s tenure here is basically for eternity until one person gets even close to setting 61 NHL records.

Oh, that new wing of the Hall?

That will belong to Michael Phelps.

Even before the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Phelps had already established himself as the greatest swimmer of all-time, but after recovering from a couple of tough years after 2012, Phelps came back hold the most medals of any Olympian ever. I mean, he beat an Olympic record that has stood for 2168 years.

As great as these athletes are, there’s a more exclusive club within the Hall that rages on with one simple question that has yet to be answered: who is the greatest athlete of all time?

With all of his success, Michael Phelps certainly deserves a spot at the table to argue his case. As popular as athletes like LeBron James, Cam Newton and Mike Trout get year around, the fact that Phelps’ popularity peaks every four years should not deter from the fact that he may be the greatest athlete ever.

Yeah, that’s right: the greatest ever.

Four things measure greatness in an athlete: extraordinary performance, sustainability, natural talent, and success through adversity – four things Michael Phelps has in spades.

One-of-a-kind Performance

The greatest athletes always have a signature performance that puts them in the stratosphere above everyone else. Jordan had the 1997-1998 season and Wayne Gretzky had the 1984-1985 season.

Phelps had the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Already with a record eight-medal performance under his belt from Athens, Phelps set his goals even higher. He sought to beat Mark Spitz’s seven-gold-medal performance; a performance that has served as the greatest Olympic performance for the last 36 years.

That’s not the case anymore.

Not only did Phelps win eight gold medals, he set seven world records in Beijing. Three of his best moments came in his signature stroke: the butterfly. He set the world record at the 200-meter event despite not being able to see anything due to his goggles being filled with water.  In the next butterfly event, Phelps out-touched Milorad Cavic by 0.01 seconds to win his record-tying gold.

How does that compare to Jordan’s six and final championship or Gretzky’s historic season?

People give Jordan and Gretzky credit for grinding through long seasons to show up when it truly counts in the playoffs, but Phelps’ season is no walk in the park either.

Think of Phelps’ (regular) season starting at the Olympic Trials. In order even make it into the Olympics (playoffs), he had to swim in 15 races: five qualifiers, five semifinals, and five finals – all in just under two weeks.

During the Olympics, Phelps had to navigate that same swim schedule while also adding three more races against top-flight competition from around the world. And he came away a perfect eight for eight in gold medals.

Sustainability

Let’s start with the obvious – Michael Phelps is kind of good at swimming. The crazy thing is that unlike a lot of Olympians, his greatness is not limited to one, or even two Olympic games.

No one in the pool has had more success.

His 23 gold medals at the Olympics are the most of anyone ever in the modern era. The people with the next most gold have nine. Michael Phelps has 14 more gold medals than Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis.  Overall, he has 28 medals which is 10 more than the next-best Larisa Latynina.

After failing to medal in Sydney, Phelps went on a tear the last four Olympic games with medal counts of 8-8-6-6. That is dominance that is spread over 12 years of being the best in the world.

And it’s not just every four years that Phelps shows that no one else is on his level.

Every two years, Phelps also takes part in the FINA World Aquatics Championships, where he is just as successful at his craft. He has won a record 26 gold medals, and 33 total medals since 2001. At most of those meets, he is the leading gold medalist.

What Phelps has accomplished in swimming is right on par with Gretzky leading the NHL in points 11 seasons or Jordan leading the NBA in scoring 10 seasons. That kind of greatness over an era of swimming may never be seen again.

Talent

What were you doing when you were 15? Awkwardly making your way through high school, eating awful lunch food and hoping Michelle in homeroom didn’t discover your Pokemon obsession?

Phelps was swimming in the Olympics.

At 15 years old, Phelps become the youngest male swimmer to make the Olympic team in 68 years. He didn’t medal at the 2000 Athens Olympic Games, but he got his first taste of final round when he finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly.

Phelps was a natural in the pool and started swimming when he seven years old. At the age of 10, Phelps held the national record in the 100-meter butterfly for his age group. Entering into the Rio Olympics in 2016, Phelps still holds 12 records at various junior age groups.

The saying goes that talent can only take you so far before work ethic pushes you over the top. Even Michael Phelps defies that logic.

Before the Rio Olympics, Michael Phelps admitted to competing in the London Olympics on talent alone. The same London Games that netted him four gold medals, and two silvers.

Let that sink in.

Phelps missed practice and did not prepare to the level that most swimmers have in order to face the best swimmers in the world, and he still got four gold medals after basically showing up.

Could Michael Jordan have been the same basketball player if he decided he didn’t need to practice his jump shot anymore? Doubtful. Babe Ruth got by on beer and hot dogs, but he couldn’t reach the championship heights that Phelps did in his sport year after year.

That is how prodigious Michael Phelps is.

Success through adversity

The big argument against Phelps is that he was never in direct physical competition with anyone. Not that he wasn’t racing against other people, but there wasn’t a defense trying to stop him from going as fast as possible. Jordan had to overcome the Detroit Pistons, and Gretzky had to go head-to-head with some of the best players of all time in order to win.

Phelps’ may not have had to navigate a defense, but he did have to take every world-class swimmers best shot. Every. Single. Race.

You think his kind of success and marketability didn’t breed resentment?

Every racer around the world wanted to be the guy to take down Phelps and his assault on the Olympic record books. Swimmers who didn’t have the fastest times in the world would up their games whenever Phelps was in the Pool with him, and more times than not, he would come out on top.

Cavic in 2008 was the first person to test Phelps in an individual race and lost. American Ryan Lochte might have been one of the greatest swimmers of all time if he didn’t continue to lose to Phelps.

Swimming the amount of events Phelps did comes with a toll in time and recovery. Most days, Phelps would have a race in one event, only to have another one right after. That kind of quick turnaround doesn’t allow for world-class performances usually, but Phelps found a way to make it work in his races.

At the London Games, Chad le Clos finally downed Phelps in an individual event, his first loss in an individual Olympic event since 2004. But that was only the beginning of Phelps’ slide.

Questionable decisions and a DUI arrest rocked Phelps in the aftermath of his retirement announcement in 2012. Without swimming, Phelps was lost and could not fill the void that it left.

But he was able to come back to the sport and find his groove. Phelps was able to qualify for the Olympics in three individual events.

At the ripe age of 31 Phelps not only dominated le Clos to take back his 200-meter butterfly medal, he helped the United States reclaim the 4x100 freestyle relay with a brilliant leg and grabbed six gold medals after he was supposedly done with swimming.

Conclusion

Michael Phelps has shown the resolve of a champion, and is already considered one of the greatest athletes of all time, but he might not even be done.

Phelps has been adamant in saying that this will be his final Olympic games, but it’s not like fans haven’t heard that before. Plus, Anthony Ervin proved at 35 that age is just a number after winning the 50-meter freestyle sprint.

Guess what age Michael Phelps will be when Tokyo rolls around in 2020?

That’s right. 35.

Michael Phelps’ success has reached impossible heights with the four pillars of greatness that measure any athlete. Although he may not jump out of the building, or run faster than a human being should run, Phelps dominance of his competition for over a decade has him at least in the discussion for the greatest athlete of all time.

But, his talent really separates him from the field. There may never be another athlete that consistently destroys his competition like Phelps. No athlete can say that he failed to prepare properly and still beat the best when it really counted. 

Michael Phelps can say that.

Add another four years and couple more gold medals, there won’t even be a discussion.

The question that will need to be asked is what pose Phelps would like his statue to be in when it is erected in the Hall of G.O.A.T.