Contemplations on the G.O.A.T.

How can we have so many G.O.A.T.s in one Olympic games?  Usain Bolt is but the last of the pantheon to finish up his work after Michael Phelps, Katie Ludecky and Simone Biles all were feted as being incomparable in their chosen endeavors.

Who is the greatest among these G.O.A.T.s?  Phelps has lapped the entire field of gold medal winning athletes in the history of the games. Bolt has just pitched a perfect game, nine up and nine down. Ludecky seemed like she was out of the pool and toweling off while everyone else was doing the doggy paddle. And Biles was winning victories by enormous margins in a sport where every one hundreth matters.

There is no good answer, no bad one to this question. Is the length and breadth of Phelp's career, like an enormous wingspan across the pool, the deciding factor? Is Bolt's prodigious stride what sets him apart from lesser gods? Is Ludecky's ability to never slow down the most legendary feat of all? Or is Biles' seeming capacity to leap tall buildings in a single bound a feat that only a true Superwoman could accomplish?

These are matters, not weighty, but enormously intriguing, which will fill up the sports pages and be the focus of our discussions and disagreements in the coming months. G.O.A.T. At least until the next G.O.A.T. arrives.