I really don't consider playing on a jungle gym a sport, but I'm a asshole.

Olympic swimming kind of bugs me. Phelps won a bunch of medals in different swimming events, so he basically did the same thing a bunch of different ways. It's like if we had six versions of the 100 meter dash where you run forwards, and then backwards, and then waving your arms in the air, and then holding your arms straight in front of you, and so on.

I would disqualify Phelps from this discussion for that reason.

I never thought about this before, but swimming events would be better if you could use whatever stroke you wanted, but the different events were different fluids and densities. You'd have a water event, and then a milk event, and then a partially gelled Jello event, and then a pudding event.

Shut up and sweep my chimney, limey

So if you’re complaining that Biles isn’t as versatile as Mahomes is, you’re full of it.

That’s only a fair argument against, like, Katie Ledecky, who is maybe the best swimmer on earth but all she does is one thing.

Biles wins virtually every event she competes in, and all the events are different. We know she’s versatile because her sport, which is really a collection of sports, proves it.

Mahomes only does one (albeit very difficult) thing. We’re only *confident* Mahomes would be good at baseball. We don’t know it.

Biles, we know for sure, because she not only does it but she does it better than anyone ever has in the history of the sport.

Yeah.....we will have to agree to disagree on that first statement.

Sorry....Don't buy your assessment of gymnastics being a collection of sports. And you don't either because if you had really thought it through that same type of thinking makes Katie Ledecky no different than Simone Biles in that she competes in different events within swimming.

Interestingly enough I did a comparison on Ledecky and Biles.....(BTW...Biles is 3 days older than Ledecky)

Simone Biles got her first Olympic Gold Medal in 2016, where she has 4 gold and 1 Bronze. Where she has amassed the largest cadre of medals is at the World Championships where she has 19 Gold Medals, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze. Biles has won 35 medals in world competition with 27 being Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze.

Katie Ledecky got her first Gold Medal at age 15 in the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 800 Meter Freestyle. In 2016 Ledecky came home from the Olympics with 4 Gold and one Bronze medal. Her total world competition medal count is 34 medals with 28 Gold, 5 Silver and 1 Bronze.

So if you want to give your argument some credibility you should be arguing just as much for Ledecky as you are Biles. Both are damn good athletes.

The difference between you and I is this....I see Mahomes, Biles and Ledecky as extremely great athletes and have given them their due.

When all is said and done....we will probably see all 3 of them as GOAT in their respective competitive sports.

I almost agree with Direckshun... but the age cut off gives so much advantage to gymnasts I have to grade her down a little. Plus, major pro sports are such a draw for athletic talent due to the sky high income that I would say it is even more difficult to dominate the sport.

That said it's a silly list. Apples and orange. Still fun to talk about.

Biles plays baseball?

The whole athlete debate is a fun and frustrating discussion. It depends on how one defines an athlete. And there are various arguments for what the definition is, and few are completely wrong.