Better Left Unsaid?

In a recent interview with SI.com Carl Lewis finally spoke his mind about the Jamaican success at the Beijing Olympic and the Michael Phelps phenomenon sweeping the globe.

The outspoken nine-time Olympic gold medalist said the following:

"I've never been one to compare eras in sports and you can't compare swimming to track and field because there's no way in the world you can get as many medals in track and field as you can in swimming. We can run one or two relays; they can swim five. I didn't realize that of Spitz's seven gold medals in Munich, three were relays. Five of his nine golds were relays. I thought, "If I could run the 4x100, 4x200, and so on, I'd have this many medals." To me, it's not a matter of saying I'm better. It's not even worth comparing. We should just celebrate who he is and leave it at that."

Ummm…interesting is this real talk or does it come off like sour grapes from arguably the greatest Olympic athlete to ever lace up sneakers?

“I'm still working with the fact that he [Usain Bolt] dropped from 10-flat to 9.6 in one year. I think there are some issues. I'm proud of America right now because we have the best random and most comprehensive drug testing program. Countries like Jamaica do not have a random program, so they can go months without being tested. I'm not saying anyone is on anything, but everyone needs to be on a level playing field,” said Lewis.

Is this the line of conversation to take, when in fact, the U.S. has been one of the biggest violators of drug abuse (Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomergy..etc) ?

Some of what Carl said is quite accurate but at this point do you think this is helpful to the sport?

By Jay Hicks.