The following podcast contains explicit language.

Monday, August 8, 2016 from Slate, it's the gist I'm Mike Pesca.

Michael Phelps extends his streak as the most decorated Olympian 19 gold 23 overall medals.

Most decorated like a human gingerbread house.

Kind of uncreative decorations, right? How about a medal?

How about another medal?

How about another gold medal?

Who's the decorator on this project?

And here's the thing about Michael Phelps.

I'm an American.

I love the guy, devoid as he is of personality.

But man, can he swim?

Still, the reason he's the most decorated is he's not a better swimmer than Carl Lewis was a runner

or that any fencer is a fencer or that even some canoeist you've never heard of as a canoeist.

It's just that they have so many different strokes and so many different distances.

So in track, they have different distances and there's one example where they have a different stroke sort of.

It's the speed walking, but we don't think of the breaststroke and the backstroke and the butterfly as we do.

The inherent joke that is race walking, but when you get right down to it,

isn't every stroke beside the freestyle not going as fast as you can?

So aren't they all different versions of race walking?

And I'm sure you saying Bolt would be similarly decorated if there was a hundred yard dash,

but also a hundred yard trot and a hundred yard galvan than a hundred yard excited saunter.

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