As Gary points out athletics is rife with ‘sub-optimal’ events. Walking. 4 kinds of throwing! 4 kinds of jumping one of which is a grown up game of hop-scotch (triple jump). Obstacle events; hurdles and steeple.

I also fail to see why Phelps’ medley events are dismissed when Jackie Joyner Kersee, widely regarded as the greatest female athlete ever, made her career in multi eventing whilst being only truly great in 1 event (long Jump).

Bradly shows no insight into the comparisons involved and is clearly biased towards Bolt and simply chose to stack his ‘data’ to support his emotional response to the subject.

The exploration of Bolt and Phelps’ achievements relative to their peers is one that deserves genuine respect and unbias study. Also there should be comparisons as to why the human body can handle the rigours of many events (and many minutes of peak performance) in swimming whilst track stars are bodies are shot after a matter of seconds at maximum effort (no judgement there, genuine curiosity).