Mr. PeanutButter

Men's freestyle is not off to the start I was hoping for

I have a feeling that all the real contenders are above the nipple line

I didn't think Brooks looked that bad, really. Got beat on one exchange and that vicious bow seemed to have taken a bit out of him

stopped wrestling, unfortunately. That turn that his opponent tried looked brutal. Maybe took some starch out of him

dang, big swing potentially if things get tied up oh, nevermind. lee techs him as I type this up

another gold

The Iranian coaches celebration after his athlete won 97kg greco was really something

Lopez isn't American and that definitely doesn't help his exposure

Will this even come close to what she could potentially earn through NIL? Genuinely asking, although I'm not sure anyone really knows. Totally agree with your other points

I think you might be confused about what the actual topic of discussion is, which is who the better Olympic athlete is, Lopez or Phelps. You seem to be arguing that, because Marchand is slightly faster than Phelps was, that means that he is the better Olympian and that the original topic of Phelps vs Lopez has no merit. This might shatter your mind but Marchand can be a faster swimmer yet Phelps is still the better, more successful swimmer and Olympic athlete, by every metric. You need to step back a bit and look at the whole picture rather than being fixated only on the times. The point about the suits is a good, interesting one. If you are so passionate, I encourage you to look into how the technology of the 2008 LZR compares to modern textiles (hint, drag coefficient and compression are actually better now). Full leg and body suits are banned and those certainly gave an advantage but that advantage was available to everyone. Phelps broke records and won gold before and after the tech suits.

Marchand is definitely better underwater, and Bowman has publicly talked about this so you're right on that one. I watched the international broadcast so that I could see the medal ceremonies and not have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials between events so I don't know what was said during broadcast. In an interview that Bowman gave in May he said that Marchand could not do the practice sets that Phelps did in freestyle but was close in butterfly and backstroke. And, yeah, nobody is disputing that Marchand is faster than Phelps. You would hope so since over 16 years have passed (since 2008, when Phelps was in his prime), right? The thing to look at is how dominant is Marchand relative to his competition, and in that regard he falls behind Phelps. It remains to be seen if Marchand can match Phelps' longevity, which is one of the major reasons Phelps is given GOAT status

Phelps won the 400 IM, 200 IM, and 200 fly by greater margins and in world record times, all at the Olympics. If you compare Phelps 200 free vs Marchand's 200 breast, Phelps has a greater margin of victory in that event as well. Phelps won one more individual event than Marchand did, at the same age. You're gonna have to give the exact quote where Bob Bowman said that Marchand is better. The only thing I've seen him say about Phelps vs Marchand is that they are very similar but also different (gasp)

There is only one 50 event contested at the Olympics and the 50/100/200 freestyle triple has, to my knowledge, never been done ( at the Olympics). The 2 sports are as different as chess is to bowling so comparisons will always be fraught with challenges but I can definitely still appreciate your sentiment. It blows my mind what Lopez can do at 41 years old in a sport so grueling and 5 consecutive golds is unpredecented so he certainly has a strong case for goat Olympian. I'm super biased but, if you can, entertain the following: Phelps set something like 39 world records, which makes it easy to compare him against other goat swimmers. Unfortunately, wrestling doesn't lend itself well to similar comparisons. The changes in technique and race tactics he introduced are now commonplace. He visibly changed how swimming is swum. Did Lopez change how greco is wrestled? Honestly asking, because I don't know. Phelps brought the world record in the 200 IM from 1:58 to 1:54, which is the biggest comparative improvement in an event by a single swimmer in the modern era. He progressed the world records in 4 other events by smaller, though still significant margins. This ties into my previous point, which is that it's much easier to see how far Phelps advanced his sport, something that I don't know to be the case for Lopez. This also factors into how dominant Phelps was relative to his competition. Yes, swimming has a ton of events, but that means you have to compare him against other swimmers, not against athletes from other sports. Besides having the greatest versatility of any swimmer all time, he also holds some of the largest margins of victory in swimming Olympics history - - all done across multiple events and multiple Olympics. Phelps' dominance, versatility, and longevity are what set him far, far, faaaaar above any other swimmer in history. For some people, like myself, that is enough to make him the greatest Olympic athlete in history. Lopez' biggest case is that he remained undefeated across 5 Olympics. That is enough for some to put him above Phelps. Despite my bias, I can appreciate this argument and be almost swayed by it, were it not for the lasting changes that Phelps left on the sport.

Amit got some guns

The arguments I've heard are that they make for exciting races because of the potential for dramatic lead changes (although this seems less common in track) and that they serve as the best gage of which country has the best overall team across both genders. I'm lukewarm on them overall

Some interesting points here but a few corrections: There are no "stroke" 50s contested at the Olympics, only the 50 freestyle (fun fact: you can swim any stroke in this event, even sidestroke, but front crawl is the fastest and hence the default). On the men's side there was a remarkable dearth of multiple event winners if you ignore the French superstar (who has the same coach as Michael Phelps!) and in general, there has been progressively fewer multiple event winners over the years, but perhaps less so on the women's side. As a swimmer, I enjoy the many, many different events but can understand the argument for medal overinflation. If wrestling wanted to compete in this regard maybe the sport should award "best double leg", "best flying squirrel" "best assassin", etc

not buying it

I heard on FRL today that weigh ins will take place at the village, effectively giving competitors 4 hours between stepping on the scale and the mat. Is this legit? Could be very beneficial for RBY and Micic and the other mass monsters

Maybe, but have hope. There's a lot of Bass in Iowa and Bo seems to like to fish for attention BTW, I can't believe I didn't think to call Forrest the LumberJax in my previous post

Bruv, imagine Bassetino, Blazer, and Jax all end up in the same weight

Suspicious

I believe Fletcher is a legit, professional comedian. I think I've seen a post of him on one of the other boards announcing an upcoming stand up show he was performing in. I might be misremembering or mixing him up with someone

Is this for real? Interesting if so. I've seen plenty of videos of Taylor engaged in traditional strength training. It looked to me like he was a proponent of it

This reminds me of RBY "I've never wrestled freestyle before"

Bro, pass the pipe. Jk I don't do drugs but seriously, what has been up with your posts lately? Things so boring at home that you have to stir up bad faith arguments online? It doesn't take much effort at all to find interviews online of some combination of spencer, his dad, teammates, or coaches, to realize that nothing you said is true (of Spencer). That being said, I can definitely envision Bassett being drawn to Iowa precisely because he would be perceived as the top dog - - including the financial incentives that would entail.