I'll grant you that Michael Phelps has attained a great accomplishment. In winning 8 gold medals at one Olympics, his individual wins set 5 gold medals with world record times. No complaints here that Phelps is a focused athlete and is deserving of attention.
Here's my gripe: 3 of those gold medals were team events, yet Phelps' teammates get only limited attention and, when they do end up in interviews, they get asked about how they feel about helping Phelps win his 8 golds.
The reality is that those 8 gold medals were a team effort, an effort where the teammates are worthy of attention in their own right. If they had not been competing with the same focus and at the top of their individual games, Phelps could have been 3 gold medals short of the record.
Somehow, whenever the Olympics come around, a few people become media darlings, generally deserving athletes, at the expense of other deserving athletes who have also worked hard to reach this premier event in their lives. I recognize that there are only so many hours of airtime available and probably more stories than the time available, much less to also cover the events.
It still seems a shame in this time of accomplishing a record that may well be impossible to improve upon (except by setting new time records) that ALL of those who made it possible are not being held up in the spotlight with the honor they deserve.
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I agree that there some gross overexposure of Phelps...especially since, as you point out, 3 of his medals were earned in TEAM events.
I had some trouble with the media's Olympic coverage. We only got to see a small fraction of the actual events televised live, for valid logistical reasons of course, but there was little to no post-event coverage of sports like kayaking, rowing, archery, etc.
And when did ping-pong and clay pigeon shooting become Olympic-caliber sports???
Also, thanks for stopping by, the other day! Have a terrific week.
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