Watching sports provides a lot of great entertainment. The thrill of victory, agony of defeat and all that. It also provides many great opportunities for never ending arguments about just how great various sports achievements are. Often these arguments are bolstered by the misuse of statistics. One such example was the constant references to Michael Phelps as “the Greatest Olympian Ever” which was based on the fact that he’d won more medals than any other athlete in history.
To be clear, I’m sure an argument can be made that he is the greatest ever, but the use of one number, medal count, to determine that really bothers me. As often happens in the media, the number is looked at in only one context (compared to the number of medals other athletes have won) rather than considering a great number of other factors: