Best American athlete. Hint: it isn't Big Ben.

The best American athlete - Sports - NBCSports.com One of the marks of a truly great champion is that he (or, as the case may be, she) is willing to compete fearlessly against other elite athletes, even when it's not seen as his or her signature event. That's what champions do. They test themselves.

At the Athens Olympics, Phelps swam the 200 free even though he had to know beforehand it probably meant the end of his attempt to better Mark Spitz's haul of seven swimming gold medals, set at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Phelps is especially deadly in the butterfly and the medleys, where a swimmer is asked to swim -- all in one race -- the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

Phelps finished third in the Athens 200 free, in what swim aficionados now call 'the race of the century,' behind Ian Thorpe of Australia and Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands.

Kudos to Phelps. He tried. He won 'only' six gold medals in Athens, eight overall.

One of the marks of a truly great champion is that he (or, as the case may be, she) is willing to compete fearlessly against other elite athletes, even when it's not seen as his or her signature event. That's what champions do. They test themselves.

At the Athens Olympics, Phelps swam the 200 free even though he had to know beforehand it probably meant the end of his attempt to better Mark Spitz's haul of seven swimming gold medals, set at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Phelps is especially deadly in the butterfly and the medleys, where a swimmer is asked to swim -- all in one race -- the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

Phelps finished third in the Athens 200 free, in what swim aficionados now call "the race of the century," behind Ian Thorpe of Australia and Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands.

Kudos to Phelps. He tried. He won "only" six gold medals in Athens, eight overall.

In that same manner, this January at a meet in Long Beach, Calif., Phelps undertook an extraordinary challenge.

In the space of 41 minutes, he swam the 100-yard fly, 100 back and 100 breast against Crocker, Peirsol and Hansen, among the best in the world in their events.

The race against Hansen in the breaststroke marked Phelps' 15th, and final, event in 50 hours. Hansen won, in 52.81. Phelps came in second, in 54.67 -- more than a second lower than his previously best time.

In the butterfly, Crocker -- with whom Phelps has had a great rivalry -- went out fast and won in 45.23. Phelps came in second.

Phelps beat Peirsol, winner of the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events in Athens.

In all, at that meet in Long Beach, Phelps won four races and finished second in three others.

Three second-place finishes? That's America's greatest?