RIO DE JANEIRO -- If this is goodbye for Michael Phelps, and he's adamant it is, he clearly aims to embrace all that Brazil and these Olympics have to offer. And it's so easy to see. He's been seen all over the Games, he's been vocal and supportive at the Aquatics Stadium, and that big, goofy, lantern-jawed grin we used to witness only after the medal was safely about his neck ... that's been there all week.
"I'm enjoying this," he was telling us this weekend after that wonderful 4x100 relay win, one that saw him visibly moved by a stirring ovation from the Brazilians stuffed into the place. "My goal is to help our team win. That's why I'm here. But I'm in a bit of a different place now."
Yep. The whole world's watched Phelps. He wants to watch back.
If this is goodbye for Usain Bolt, and he's adamant it is, he clearly aims to have Brazil and these Olympics embrace all that he has to offer.
That, in addition to bullet-like speed, just happens to be how he rolls.
"I know the sport needs me to win and come out on top," the Jamaican giant of sprint was telling reporters in London on July 21, his most recent media availability. "I will take the golds, for sure. This is where history is going to be made."
Yep. The whole world's watched Bolt. And he wants them to watch some more, to the point he's tweeting out pleas for fans to buy tickets to track and field: "Make sure you come down and watch. It's going to be great!"
They're different, Phelps and Bolt, the former still somewhat shy, the latter a showman whose bluster would have made Barnum and Bailey blush.
But they've got this colossal thing in common: Both currently get recognized as the greatest Olympian of all time, depending on the perspective, and both can make major marks in the debate at these very Games, maybe right down to both men's final events.
Some, of course, prefer to begin and end that debate like this:
Sorry, no. Not that I'm knocking Phelps and his Olympic-record 23 medals in any capacity. But the best place to start talking about this is to compare swimming to track and field in terms of realistic medal possibilities.
Phelps absolutely deserves all credit imaginable for excelling in as many disciplines as he has, particularly for the brilliant eight golds in Beijing, a feat that might never be matched. Though freestyle is the purest, truest swimming race, there are distinct skills to the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and even the various roles involved in relays. It takes someone truly exceptional -- and only Phelps and Mark Spitz rose to this level -- to achieve success in so many.
What's more, he's lapped his competition from Athens to London to just this weekend, showing with that breathtaking 15-meter underwater push in the relay Sunday that he can continue to do superhuman things in his fifth Olympics at age 31:
My goodness. I couldn't believe that with my own eyes, and I still don't.
Put it this way: There are so many reasons Phelps is the easy choice, and they're all legit.
But I can easily whip up a handful of reasons that Bolt is the choice:
• Swimming has had 17 disciplines over the past three Games, including these. That's more than ever. In 1960, there were just eight. Track and field has 24 events, but only 10 of those are for non-hurdle running. And the difference between running 100 meters and 1,500, 5,000 or 10,000 meters is infinitely bigger than any gap in swimming. It's almost unheard of for any sprinter to extend beyond three events, with the great long jumper Carl Lewis offering the most prominent exception, and his legacy was tarnished by failed drug tests.
• Phelps has won 73.3 percent of his individual Olympic races, which, again, is incredible. Bolt has won 100 percent of his individual races, meaning all six runs in the 100 and 200.
• Bolt has his own version of Phelps-ian versatility: He is the only sprinter to have recorded a double-triple in back-to-back Games, winning the 100, 200 and the 4x100 relay.
• If Bolt wins the 100 here, he'll be the first to win the Olympics' signature event in three consecutive Games.
They call the winner of the 100 the 'fastest man alive.' In Bolt's case, he might well be the fastest man ever, as no one else has won six sprinting golds since the Games of ancient Greece.
And hey, who knows what kind of nuts and berries those toga-wearing dudes were taking down?
My initial inclination is to go with Bolt, though I fear an inherent bias toward track over swimming in that there's nothing more innately athletic in human history than running. We are, after all, land animals, at least since the Mesozoic Era, I think. There's just something purer about running, about being able to get from point A to B faster than anyone else.
When we ask who's the greatest athlete in any given sport, team or individual, we're almost always pointing to the one who can run the fastest, not swim the fastest.
That might not be fair, but I'm spilling it all out.
My second inclination is to just wait and see.
Phelps has three individual swims on the docket here, the 100 fly, 200 fly and 200 individual medley. He's already won gold in the 4x100 free, and the 4x100 medley relay is a possibility. The 200 fly is Tuesday night.
Bolt and American rival Justin Gatlin are expected to headline the 100-meter sprint Saturday night. The 200 is next Tuesday, and the 4x100 is just two days later. He'll have a week to make a case that almost no one could dispute.
But then, my third and final inclination is to dump them all and go with Jesse Owens.
Take a couple minutes and watch this, please:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQopJmQry4
Talk about a guy who could handle adversity on the road.
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