Written by Emma Berger
The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. Back then, fewer than 250 men participated. Since then it has become a huge sports festival with more than 10,000 male and female athletes. A lot happened in all those years, of course, prowesses were accomplished and many medals were collected. Some athletes fared a little better than others. Spoiler alert: one athlete stands out head and shoulders above the rest. You can probably guess who that is. Here is an overview of the best Olympians of all time.
Top 10 Olympians list
| Number | Name | Country | Sport | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Ray Ewry | United States | Athletics | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 10 | Usain Bolt | Jamaica | Athletics | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 9 | Matt Biondi | United States | Aquatics | 8 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 8 | Jenny Thompson | United States | Aquatics | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 7 | Sawao Kato | Japan | Gymnastics | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| 6 | Birgit Fischer | Germany | Canoe Sprint | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| 5 | Carl Lewis | United States | Athletics | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| 4 | Mark Spitz | United States | Aquatics | 9 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| 3 | Paavo Nurmi | Finland | Athletics | 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| 2 | Larissa Latynina | Ukraine (Former Soviet-Union) | Gymnastics | 9 | 5 | 4 | 18 |
| 1 | Michael Phelps | United States | Aquatics | 23 | 3 | 2 | 28 |
The observant reader had already noticed that there are two number 10s on the list of best Olympians of all time. This is because they won the exact same number of medals. The first number ten is Ray Ewry, an American Olympian who was active around the year 1900. He specialized mainly in high jump, long jump and triple jump. This earned him the nickname ‘The Human Frog’. These parts of athletics at that time went differently than how we know them today. In fact, back then the jumps were all done from standing position.
At the 1900, 1904 and 1908 Olympic Games, Ray Ewry won a total of eight gold medals. Three for high jump, three for long jump and two for triple jump. He also won two more gold medals at the intermediate Games of 1906, but these are not recognized by the IOC. In fact, these were between the official Olympic Games.
Usain Bolt needs no introduction. The Jamaican sprinter has left an indelible impression with his style on and off the track. Ask any person who Usain Bolt is and in all likelihood you will get the correct answer. This status is mainly due to his performances at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.
Bolt competed in three different athletics disciplines during these Olympic Games: 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and the 4×100-meter relay. In all three events, he managed to win. Three times three gold medals, that would put him at 9 medals. Jamaica’s victory in the 2016 relay was eventually dropped because doping was detected in one of Bolt’s teammates. That leaves him at 8 gold Olympic medals, which is already an awesome score !
Number nine on the list of best Olympians of all time is American swimmer Matt Biondi. He owes this spot to his total of 11 Olympic medals. Eight gold, two silver and one bronze. He won these awards at three editions of the Games, in 1984, 1988 and 1992.
Biondi excelled in the freestyle and it is the discipline in which he won the most medals. He also won the 4 x 100m medley along with his teammates during all three editions he participated in. Furthermore, Matt Biondi also won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly. Biondi also did well at the world championships and other tournaments. A score to be proud of.
Another swimmer and yet another American on the list. Jenny Thompson was not only a good athlete, she also had it good outside the sport. After her swimming career, she became a doctor. A woman of many talents.
A word about her Olympic record. During the four editions of the Olympic Games between 1992 and 2004, Thompson won a total of 12 medals. All of her eight gold medals were in relay disciplines. As a solo swimmer, she earned a silver and a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle. So it is safe to say that this is both a successful sports career and a successful social career. Jenny Thompson still follows the Olympic Games with great interest and she always tries to be there live.
No. 7 on the list of best Olympians of all time is Sawao Kato, a gymnast from Japan. He has won the exact same number of medals as Jenny Thompson. Still, we decided to put him above the American swimmer because Kato has another record to his name so far. Namely, he is the Olympian with the most gold medals in gymnastics.
He tallied these awards at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. In all three editions he and his team became Olympic champions. Sawao Kato had a large share in this win each time. In fact, he managed to win several individual events: once floor, twice bridge and twice the individual all-around. Will Kato’s record stand at the Olympic Games Paris 2024?
Image source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We find the first European athlete in the top 10 best Olympians at spot 6. This is German canoeist Birgit Fischer. What immediately stands out about her performance is that she participated in no less than six Olympic Games, between 1980 and 2004. Only the 1984 edition she had to skip because of the GDR boycott.
Like numbers seven and eight on the list, Birgit Fischer earned the same number of medals, 12. However, she does have one more silver medal, which puts her at number six on the list. Fischer earned gold twice in the single kayak, twice in the double and four times in the four-person kayak. Add to that some four silver medals and you have Birgit Fischer’s record. By the way, she is the only female Olympian who ever won two medals 20 years apart.
Halfway down the list of best Olympians of all time, we come across an athlete who has won fewer medals than some of his predecessors. However, he does have more gold medals than the above athletes, so he definitely deserves his spot on the list. We are talking about athletics great Carl Lewis. The fourth American on this list already.
Lewis was a versatile Olympian. At the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, he won many medals. He won the long jump, 100m dash, 200m dash and 4x100m relay disciplines several times. At the 1984 Olympics, Carl Lewis was exceptionally good. The fact that this was his debut on the most prestigious stage for an athlete did not stop him. On the contrary, he won all the disciplines listed above. Lewis is considered one of the best athletes ever.
Mark Spitz is once again an American. He has one more bronze medal than his compatriot Carl Lewis. Therefore, he is one spot higher. The fourth spot on the list is quite special when you realize that Mark Spitz has only competed in two Olympic Games. These were in 1968 and 1972. In 1968, Spitz predicted in advance that he would win six gold medals. This ended up being two.
The 1972 Games were a lot more lucrative for Mark Spitz. Indeed, during this edition he won all seven disciplines he competed in and swam the fastest time to that time each time. The disciplines Spitz won: 100 & 200 meter freestyle, 100 & 200 meter butterfly, 4×100 & 4×200 meter freestyle and the 4×100 meter medley. This also earned him the record for most gold medals at an Olympic Games. Michael Phelps later swam this record back out of the books.
We kick off the top three best Olympians of all time with Finn Paavo Nurmi. He was a versatile runner who excelled in long and medium distances. This is reflected in the medals he won. For example, he won an Olympic plaque in the following disciplines: 1500 meters, 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers, 3 kilometers steeplechase, cross-country (individual and team) and 3 kilometers team.
As you can see, he won many individual events, as well as a few in team events. Nurmi was part of a group of talented Finnish runners nicknamed “The Flying Finns”. Another remarkable fact about Paavo Nurmi: he had already won five gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games and wanted to add a sixth, in the 10 km, but he was prevented from event trying because the Finnish officials thought that he would not be physically fit enough after his other races. To this Nurmi disagreed. So when he returned home to Finland he ran a record in the 10 km right away, just to prove them wrong.
Larissa Latynina is the last of four athletes to achieve nine gold medals at the Olympic Games. However, Latynina does have an edge over the others in that she has earned nine other medals (5 silver and 4 bronze) in addition. This makes Larissa Latynina the best female Olympic athlete. The sport in which she was an absolute standout was gymnastics.
This she did for the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union. For most parts of the artistic part of gymnastics, Larissa Latynina did stand on the podium. Beam, floor, pommel horse and the bridge with uneven bars, on all these parts Latynina won a medal. These also earned her a number of overall individual and team medals at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games. This brings her total to 18 medals.
The absolute No. 1 best Olympian of all time is Michael Phelps. Thus, with 23 gold medals, he has more than double the number two and thus stands alone. Phelps made his debut at an Olympic Games as early as the age of 15(!). This was in the year 2000 in Sydney. Back then he did not manage to secure a podium spot, but things were different in the editions that followed.
Michael Phelps broke record after record. In the water, no one was as fast as him in the butterfly, freestyle and the medley. The highlight of his career was at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Here Phelps won eight gold medals and broke the record of compatriot Mark Spitz. He also achieved plenty of podium finishes at the subsequent Olympic Games. An impressive record for the American swimmer. Certainly one that will not be caught up with any time soon.
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