I am not attempting to elevate swimmers above track & field athletes; simply that swimmers are at least an even accounting. You can discount the fact that swimmers are buoyed by the medium in which they perform, yet track stars for example doesn't have to worry about being drowned when they stop their motions. What happens to Carl Lewis if he stops his sprinting? He simply can sit down or stand and expend no more energy until such time as he's recovered. Any swimmer has to keep going or rely upon someone else to get them out of the water. So the medium you fele gives swimkmers an unfair advantage at the same time saddles them with a greater challenge simply for living. Each one has its own pros and cons, it's true.... but they tend to balance each other out rather than giving the edge to one or the other.
Sorry, I can't demote Phelps just because he's a swimmer.
I think you're really reaching here. What Olympic swimmer worries about drowning? Much lesser swimmers than Olympians aren't even concerned about drowning. But have you ever seen a sprinter pull or tear a muscle going at full speed? Not only do they have to be concerned with stopping before further injury occurs, they have to worry about falling. Ever seen a hurdler fall? That is almost always horrendous.
If a swimmer pulls or tears a muscle, I would imagine they'd just stop and start to float on their own, or grab one of those lines marking the lanes. There is virtually no chance they'll actually drown with thousands of people around.
Swimming is a nice little sport, certainly deserving of being in the Olympics, and Phelps' accomplishment is noteworthy, but lets keep it in perspective. For instance, in 1968 Bob Beamon long jumped over 29 feet. At the time the Holy Grail for long jumpers was 24 feet if I recall correctly. Today, 40 years later, long jumpers are still a foot (more or less) away from matching what Beamon did. Many speculated that Beamon killed the event with that jump -- and for many years that was true. But we don't hear Beamon being called superhuman, yet what he did is a lot closer to "superhuman" than what Phelps has done.
Did any of the records Phelps set this Olympics compare to Beamon's? I don't think so. Congrats to him for his 8 gold medals, but they
were in swimming so let there be an end to all the "metahuman" foolishness.
You may have denied it, but you only continue to show your ignorance when it comes to swimming. Of course, in your own little universe, people move faster underwater than they walk on land through dry air. 
