Well there are a lot more chances for gold in the sport of swimming. I might be mistaken but I don't believe Phelps swam over 200m in these Olympics, the only way for Bolt to win gold would be for him to enter the marathon and 1500m races as well and have one of the greatest relay teams in history.

But I can't egt over just how dominant Bolt was. I love the sprints, they are the highlight of the Olympics for me. For Bolt to get the second worst reaction time out of the blocks, then have it be a wash at the 50m mark is beyond ridiculous. They were saying he could have been in the 9.5's if he didn't start pounding his chest at 70m, yet even when he pounded his chest he still set the world record and by a lot. 9.69. Put that in the perspective of earlier this year, the day Bolt ran 9.72 in the Jamaica qualifiers, Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100m time in history with a 9.68 which barely qualified as wind aided. He went full stop to try to make a statement and he did. Put him right back up there as the favorite in the race, he could have ran that time, the fastest in history, and Bolt would have been forced to run 75 instead of 70. It's stuff that is so mind boggling it's to hard to wrap your head around. And (barring steroids) there is no controversy about the technology in running which there is in swimming which makes you take those world records with a grain of salt. Not to mention, Phelps, as epic as his Olympics have been, hasn't been untouchable as he's had a few fairly close finishes. Bolt on the other hand just doesn't seem human, he has been running the 100 for less then a year. I think he had less then 10 comps under his belt when he set the WR at the qualifiers, I don't know what he is at now.

Not to mention he is competing in a sport in which every able bodied person on this planet has an opportunity to compete in regardless of where they come from or what type of money they have.

**edit - Phelps did the 400 IM but that was his only event over 200m.