Global sporting eyes will be focused on Paris on Friday 26th July as the 33rd Summer Olympics launches in the French capital. Olympic Games enthusiasts will be well aware though it starts a couple of days earlier, with the Olympic Football tournament kicking off on Wednesday 24th. Here we look at some of the most honoured Olympians of all time who have inspired, brought joy and astounded the world down the years on the most illustrious stage of them all. Those include the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Katie Ledecky who have all clinched gold medals galore.
Olympic Games: Michael Phelps (Swimming)
American swimming legend Michael Phelps stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of Olympic medals won. Throughout four Olympic Games, between 2004-2016, ‘The Baltimore Bullet’ claimed a staggering 28 medals in the pool. 23 of those being golden ones. Phelps therefore holds the record for most Olympic medals won and most Olympic golds won. If that’s not all, he also tops the table for the most medals won at a single Games. He attained that achievement when winning eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In doing so, he won one better than fellow US swimmer, Mark Spitz, who grabbed seven golds in Munich in 1972.
During his 4-Games Olympic adventure, Phelps showed his enormous versatility in the pool. He won gold in 8 different swimming disciplines. His three most successful competitions were the 200m medley, the 4 x 200m freestyle and the 4 x 100m medley. He won gold in all three of those events at all four Olympics he competed in. Phelps’ best individual stroke event was the butterfly though. He won three Olympic golds in both the 100m and 200m butterfly.
Big Fish In The Olympic Pool
Other swimmers (all American coincidently) who have made a big splash on the Olympic stage include the likes of Mark Spitz, Jenny Thompson, Matt Biondi, Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel. Mark Spitz is second behind Phelps on the most swimming golds won at the Games, with 9 to his name. ‘Mark The Shark’ won two of those at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, both relay events. He stamped his mark on Olympic history, four years later in Munich, when winning a stunning seven golden gongs. Who knows how many more he might have claimed if he hadn’t retired after Munich at the tender age of just 22.
Kristen Otto is the highest non-American pool star to appear on the golden list of swimming Olympians. She set the swimming world alight when claiming all her six golds during the 1988 Seoul Games for East Germany. In doing so, the Leipzig-born sensation became the first woman athlete to win six golds at a single Games. Otto won individual freestyle, backstroke and butterfly golds, as well as chipping in on the relay front.
Olympic Games: Larisa Latynina (Gymnastics)
Larisa Latynina laid the foundations for the Soviet Union’s (Russia) success in the gymnastics arena when securing 9 golds throughout three Olympic Games between 1956 and 1964. She still holds the record for the most Olympic golds won by a woman. After first excelling at ballet in the now-Ukrainian city of Kherson, Latynina moved on to gymnastics and honed her talents in Kyiv.
Latynina made her Olympic debut in Melbourne in 1956. She claimed her first four Games’ golds in the Australian city, winning the individual All-Around, Vault and Floor competitions. Latynina also helped the Soviets win the Team event. Four years later in Rome, she reigned supreme once again in the All-Around, Floor and Team disciplines. Her final Olympic hurrah came in Tokyo in 1964, where she took home Floor and Team golds for the third successive Games. Latynina amassed 18 Olympic medals in total, which also remains a leading Olympic tally for a woman.
Fantastic Gymnastic Olympic Greats
Other Soviet gymnasts who sparkled at the Olympics, include Nikolai Andrianov, Boris Shakhlin & Viktor Chukarin. All three claimed 7 golds apiece during their Olympic careers. The Japanese star, Sawao Kato went one better when clinching 8 glittering golds over three Olympic Games. Unfortunately for Kato, he missed out on the Tokyo Games of 1964 and didn’t make his first appearance until 1968 in Mexico City.
Similar to Larisa Latynina, Kato secured golds in the All-Around, Floor and Team events at his first Games. He repeated his highs in the All-Around and Team competitions four years later in Munich and also added Parallel Bars glory to his growing list of Olympic achievements. Kato wrapped up his Olympic career in Montreal in 1976. He claimed a third successive Team gold and successfully defended his Parallel Bars title.
Olympic Games: Paavo Nurmi & Carl Lewis (Athletics)
Paavo Nurmi & Carl Lewis both shone in the athletics arena, winning 9 golds each, at the Olympics, but at extremely different distances and in different eras. Paavo Nurmi, the ‘Flying Finn’, dominated the endurance events during the interwar periods. Amazingly, he remained unbeaten in cross-country events and the 10000m throughout his entire athletics career. Nurmi kicked off his Olympics quest in Antwerp in 1920. He didn’t let a silver in the 5000m quell his ambitions and he went on to claim golds in the 10000m and cross-country (individual and team).
In 1924 in Paris, Nurmi added to his golden tally impressively. He claimed five more golds on French soil (1500m, 5000m, cross-country (individual and team) & 3000m team), maybe spurred on by the fact that Finnish officials had astonishingly left him out of the 10000m line-up. Nurmi faced stiffer competition when he arrived in Amsterdam for the 1928 Olympics (his third and last Games). He recaptured his 10000m Olympic crown, but that was his sole gold on Dutch soil, as he had to settle for silver in both the 5000m and the steeplechase. The fantastic Finn is still remembered fondly in athletics circles and his training methods have inspired numerous long-distance runners.
Carl Lewis Sprints & Leaps To Olympic Stardom
American track legend and sprint king, Carl Lewis, amazingly featured at five Olympic Games in total. It may have been six if the US hadn’t boycotted the Moscow Games of 1980. He picked up his biggest haul of golds on his Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 1984 in front of a frenzied US crowd. Comparisons had been made with the great Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis delivered in style. He grabbed identical golds to those that Owens did at the infamous Berlin Games of 1936, winning the 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m and long jump.
The long jump was Lewis’ first love and he continued to produce in the pit throughout his Olympic career. He also won long jump golds at Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992) and in Atlanta (1996) at the age of 35. The remaining two golds in his illustrious Olympic collection came in the 100m (Seoul 1988) and the 4 x 100m (Barcelona 1992).
Usain Bolt’s Lightning Speed Wows The World
We couldn’t talk about great Olympic athletes without mentioning Usain Bolt. The Jamaican sprinting sensation was the star attraction at three consecutive Olympics (2008-2016) and bagged 8 golds in total. He had set a new 100m world record of 9.72s in May of 2008, so went into the Beijing Olympics as the solid favourite. Bolt didn’t disappoint, destroying his 100m rivals and lowering his world record to 9.69s.
He kept his foot on the gas when completing the sprint double, smashing Michael Johnson’s 200m world record in the process. Bolt was also part of the Jamaica team that won the 4 x 100m in Beijing, however almost a decade later, they’d be stripped of that gold as Nesta Carter’s sample re-tested positive.
A year later at the Berlin World Athletics Championships, Bolt stunned the world again, when lowering both his 100m and 200m world records to 9.58s and 19.19s respectively, and those times haven’t been broken to this day. He repeated his Beijing sprint successes at both the London Games of 2012 and the Rio Games of 2016. In doing so, he became the first athlete to win the 100m and 200m Olympic titles on three occasions.
Olympic Games: Birgit Fischer (Canoeing)
Canoeing is not one of the Olympic sports that tends to grab the spotlight, but German paddling princess, Birgit Fischer, did her best to change that during the course of the six Games that she competed in. She grabbed 8 Olympic golds on the water. Similar to Carl Lewis, she might have competed at another Olympics, had East Germany not boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Amazingly, she has been both the youngest ever Olympic canoeing champion (18 years old) and the oldest one too (42 years old).
Fischer kicked off her Olympic success story in Moscow in 1980 when kayaking on her lonesome to K-1 500m glory. The kayaking queen didn’t let the Los Angeles boycott affect her Olympic focus as she doubled up on golds in Seoul in 1988. Winning the doubles (K-2 500m) and the quadruples (K-4 500m) competitions. Fischer recaptured her solo crown (K-1 500m) at the Barcelona Games (1992) before returning to quads success (K-4 500m) in Atlanta (1996).
Olympic Games: 42 And Still Going Strong
Twenty years after claiming her first Olympic gold medal, Fischer delighted the spectators in Sydney, when doubling up again in the K-2 and K-4 events over 500m. She wasn’t done there though. Fischer’s hunger pangs for success still rumbled on and she headed to the birthplace of the Olympics in Athens (2004) fully focused. She bowed out in style, claiming her 8th and final gold in the K-4 500m competition. Her fourth victory in the quads event.
Olympic Games: Isabell Werth (Equestrian)
Another German female who adores picking up Olympic gongs is equestrian star, Isabell Werth. She has already bagged 7 glittering golds since making her Olympic debut over 20 years ago and remains in the saddle hoping to add to that tally in Paris. Werth began her dressage dominance in Barcelona in 1992 when helping Germany win the Team event. At the Atlanta Games four years later, she tasted Team honours once again and also added Individual dressage gold.
That was her first and only solo dressage success on the Olympic stage. However, Werth did step up on the podium alone five other times when claiming silver in the Olympic Individual event. Her golden touch continued in the Team dressage, however. She helped guide Germany to Team honours on four more occasions, in Sydney (2000), Beijing (2008), Rio (2016) & Tokyo (2021).
Olympic Greats Still Gunning For Golds
Isabell Werth isn’t the only sportsperson in the top 50 list of Olympic gold medallists who is aiming to add to their tally in Paris this summer. Over in the pool, Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel are in Olympic action again. Both American swimming legends already have 7 Olympic golds to their names.
Long-distance queen, Katie Ledecky, made her Olympic debut four years earlier than Dressel, when winning gold in the 800m freestyle at the London Games of 2012. The Maryland-born star made a bigger splash in Beijing four years later, when grabbing four golden gongs. As well as defending her 800m freestyle crown, she also stood aloft on the podium for the 200m, 400m and 4 x 200m freestyle events.
Three years ago in Tokyo, she secured her third successive 800m freestyle Olympic title and also claimed the 1500m freestyle crown for the first time at the Games. Since Tokyo, Ledecky has broken, and currently holds, the world records in both those 800m and 1500m freestyle events.
Olympic Games: No Hassle For The Dressel
It’s been nothing but Olympic glory for the versatile Caeleb Dressel. The Florida sensation has won 7 Olympic medals since making his Games debut in Rio in 2016. All 7 of them have been of the golden variety. Dressel was a true team player in Rio, helping clinch victory for the Stars and Stripes in the 4 x 100m freestyle and the 4 x 100m medley. He repeated both those in Tokyo, five years later, but also went on a solo frenzy. He clinched golds in the 50m & 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly. The world record he set in the 100m butterfly in Tokyo remains intact today. Dressel heads to Paris with still plenty to offer at the age of just 27.
Olympic Games: Danuta Kozak Hungary For Further Success
Birgit Fischer finished her Olympic canoeing career in 2004 with a final tally of 8 golds. Hungary’s Danuta Kozak who has six canoeing golds to her name, is still going strong though and is aiming for more gongs in Paris this year. Kozak, like Fischer, has also been dominating on the sprint kayaking front.
She paddled to a dream double on her Olympic debut in London in 2012 when taking home the K-1 500m and K-4 500m golds. In Rio (2016) she claimed both those titles again and also added the K-2 500m to her honours roll. It was just a single success for Kozak at the latest Games in Tokyo, where she won her third successive K-4 500 title. Will she have the Midas touch in France too?
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