In the history of the Summer Olympics, a total of 15,683 medals have been awarded, including 5,116 gold medals, 5,080 silver medals, and 5,487 bronze medals. There were 971 medals to be won at the most recent edition in Rio de Janeiro. Some sportsmen would be ecstatic to win a single bronze medal, while others would continue to win even after they had won gold, amassing a plethora of gleaming medals throughout their illustrious sporting careers. Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, is the most decorated Olympian, having won 28 medals in both individual and team competitions (23 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze). With 16 medals, Phelps has won more individual events than any other Olympian (13 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze). The top ten athletes who have won the most medals at the Summer Olympics are listed below.
No. | Name | Country | Sport | Gender | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
1 | Michael Phelps | USA | Swimming | Male | 23 | 3 | 2 | 28 |
2 | Larisa Latynina | USSR | Gymnastics | Female | 9 | 5 | 4 | 18 |
3 | Nikolai Andrianov | USSR | Gymnastics | Male | 7 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
4 | Boris Shakhlin | USSR | Gymnastics | Male | 7 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
5 | Edoardo Mangiarotti | Italy | Fencing | Male | 6 | 5 | 2 | 13 |
6 | Takashi Ono | Japan | Gymnastics | Male | 5 | 4 | 4 | 13 |
7 | Paavo Nurmi | Finland | Athletics | Male | 9 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
8 | Birgit Fischer | Germany | Canoeing | Female | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
9 | Sawao Kato | Japan | Gymnastics | Male | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
10 | Jenny Thompson | USA | Swimming | Female | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
Phelps, the ultimate winner, has created records that may never be surpassed, including the most Olympic medals (28), Olympic golds (23), most golds at a single Games (eight in the 2008 Beijing Games), and the most world swimming records (39), to mention a few. Larisa Latynina is right behind him. From 1956 to 1964, Latynina helped establish the Soviet Union as a dominant power in gymnastics during the course of three Olympic Games. Latynina was two months shy of her 30th birthday when she won the last six of her 18 career medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Her record of 18 Olympic medals was held until 2012 when it was only surpassed by Michael Phelps.
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Adrianov is ranked third on our list, and he starred in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, winning four gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal in gymnastics. He also won gold in the 1972 and 1980 Olympics, but the desired all-around gold was only earned in Montreal. Boris Shakhlin, a fellow countryman, is following him. While Latynina dominated women's gymnastics in the early 1960s, Shakhlin dominated men's gymnastics during the same time period. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, he won four gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal. He finished his career with a total of 13 medals.
Edoardo Mangiarotti, a great Italian fencer, is ranked fifth on our list. Mangiarotti made his Olympic debut in 1936 in Berlin, winning a team epee gold. He would go on to compete in four more Olympics, demonstrating his endurance. He reached his pinnacle at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he won gold in both the team and individual epee competitions. He is followed by Takashi One, a Japanese gymnast who broke the USSR's gymnastics dominance. Ono did exceptionally well, especially at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he won three golds, a silver, and two bronzes to share the attention with Shakhlin. In 1964, he competed in his final Olympics, helping the men's team win their second straight gold in Tokyo.
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Paavo Nurmi, a Finnish athlete, is ranked sixth on our list. In his 14-year career, he dominated distance running in the early twentieth century, setting 22 world marks at distances ranging from 1500 metres to 20 kilometres. His best Olympic achievement occurred in the 1924 Paris Games when he won five gold medals in gruelling sports including the 1,500m, 5,000m, team 3,000m, and individual and team cross-country races. Birgit Fischer is just behind him. Fischer became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in canoeing when she won the K1 500m event at the 1980 Moscow Games at the age of 20. That set the tone for a long career in which she won gold in six Olympic editions, with seven possible if East Germany had not boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games when she was at the height of her powers. She won gold in the fours (K4 500m) and silver in the double despite being 42 years old (K2 500m).
Sawai Kato, another Japanese gymnast on the list, competed alongside Adrianov for much of the 1970s. Kato won one more gold medal than Adrianov, despite the fact that Adrianov finished with more Olympic medals. The last person on the list has never won an individual gold medal. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Jenny Thompson was an integral part of the dominant US women's relay squad. The US women's team swept the three relay events at both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, with Thompson typically swimming the anchor leg.
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