the greatest athlete of all time

this is how you know michael phelps comes to play.

he is in the pool for multiple races on most days. his goggles slip off his face and fill up with water. he finishes the race anyway. in fact, he wins it. no wait... he sets a world record.

and he's still disappointed.

there are no words to describe the nature of michael phelps' accomplishments. he is already the winningest olympian of all time, and he's only halfway through his second summer games. he has won a race by several seconds - in a sport that usually sees separation between competitors of just hundredths of a second.

everyone expects him to win gold every day... and he goes out and does it, every time.

who else in the history of sports has been that great a performer?

the babe? clutch, yes. multi-talented, yes - a great pitcher and a great hitter in one. but phelps is no less special. he hits a home run every time he hits the pool. and multi-talented? how about swimming the fastest freestyle leg ever in the four-man relay when that's not even his specialty? as gold medalist melvin stewart told espn.com columnist pat forde, "It's good to see Kobe Bryant is there to see the greatest athlete in the world. If Kobe goes out and wins a gold medal in badminton, that's what it's like to see this guy win the 200 fly and swim that leg in the 400 free."

how about air jordan? six rings, and some of the greatest clutch moments in nba history. but jordan lost, too. and he didn't dominate from day one. the closest phelps has come to a "loss" at the olympics is when he finished behind ian thorpe and pieter van den hoogenband in the 200 free in athens. boo-hoo for bronze. and he broke his own record by a full second at beijing to stifle any ghosts lingering from his past.

tiger? if anyone comes close to phelps, it's probably eldrick woods. the man goes out and wins golf tournaments even when everyone expects him to - and even when he's behind after 36 holes. but tiger isn't invincible. he finished 2nd at the masters this year, with south african trevor immelman holding him off. and while tiger is clearly the best golfer in the world - and probably in history - there have been years when vijay singh has robbed him of the title of the pga's best.

yes, phelps is young, and he hasn't proved himself over as long a time period as the above-mentioned athletes. but this guy is practically a lock to win every time he dives into the water. there is nothing more discouraging to another swimmer than to see phelps lining up on the block next to him.

his opponents can't stop him. water in his googles can't either. having to swim 17 races during beijing 2008 doesn't even seem to have an effect. and he breaks records with every stroke.

improved swimsuit or not, this man is the real deal. is he already the greatest athlete of all time?

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UPDATE: to be fair, one person who should be mentioned in this discussion is lance armstrong. he went to the tour de france year after year with all the burden in the world, and he delivered seven years in a row. while he did have some helps from his teammates, so does phelps in relays, so maybe the debate needs to be about which one of those two is the greater athlete.