Olympics 2012: Usain Bolt Is More Dominant Athlete Than Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps is the most dominant Olympian of all-time.

Keyword: Olympian.

In the 2012 Olympics, Usain Bolt proved that he’s a superior overall athlete to Michael Phelps. The Baltimore Bullet’s Olympic dominance is undeniable—count the medals, he has the most golds by far. But the Lightning Bolt’s sprinting supremacy was on another level than Phelps’ pool preeminence in London, and it wasn’t even close.

The Associated Press reported that, after Bolt’s latest Olympic campaign, he talked about the odds that he competes in Rio de Janeiro. He said (via Sports Illustrated):

“The possibility is there, but it's going to be very hard...I've done all I want to do. I've got no more goals.”

His lack of goals is understandable.

Bolt won back-to-back gold medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100-meter dashes. He boasts world records in all three competitions.

Sure, Phelps has more gold and world records than Bolt, but he competes in over twice as many events. Bolt holds the record in every single Olympic competition that he participates in—Phelps doesn’t.

And Bolt is winning races by a wider margin. No one finished within a tenth of a second of him in the 100 or 200 in Beijing and London. Phelps, on the other hand, won his seventh gold in 2008 by a hundredth of a second.

While Phelps isn’t even considering competing in 2016, according to ESPN, Bolt is so dominant that Michael Johnson believes he should run the 400-meter too. He said:

"

He has the build to be a great 400m runner and he certainly has the speed. Without a doubt I think if he chose to make the switch at some point in his career and decided he was going to train for the 400m I am certain he would break the world record and probably run under 43 seconds and become the first person to run 42 seconds.

"

Phelps can have the Olympics. Overall, there’s no question: Bolt is the most dominant athlete alive, and if he breaks the 400 record like Johnson believes he would, he would be the most dominant ever.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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