All the World Loves a Winner

I am writing on Friday morning and so far Michael Phelps has won six gold medals in the six Olympic events in which he has thus far competed.  Two more to go; the 100-meter fly tomorrow and the 400-meter medley on Sunday. The media is wondering if he is the greatest Olympian ever. 

Who knows?  What is grreatness?  Maybe Jesse Owens whose four gold medals in Berlin reminded Hitler and the Nazis that the master race may not have been so masterful after all was the greatest Olympian ever.  Maybe it was Eric Liddell, the Flying Scotsman and later missionary to China, who refused to run his best event, the 100-meter race, on a Sunday in the 1924 Paris Games because it would have violated his faithful observance of the Sabbath. Maybe it was some athlete none of us have ever heard of who overcame personal or social or political obstacles just to compete and quietly showed a courage and valor that many medal winners never match.  Who knows who the greatest Olympian was or is? Continue Reading »