Olympic Athletes With The Most Gold Medals - YouTube

Olympic athletes are a special breed. They  live, eat, and breathe the sports they're  

passionate about and spend countless hours  training. Competing in the Olympics is one  

thing. Earning a medal is another, and  winning several gold medals is a feat few people have achieved.

Here are some of the  best Olympic gold medal winners of all time.

Swimmer Michael Phelps vastly outperforms  other Olympians with a whopping 23 gold medals.  

He won a total of 28 medals during his Olympic  career. Phelps first started competing in the  

international competition arena at the age of  15 as a member of the U.S. men's swim team.  

He has been part of five Olympic teams, and  he earned a gold medal for an individual  

event in swimming at age 28, making  him the oldest person to ever do so.

Phelps, a Baltimore, Maryland, native, was  inspired as a teenager by the 1996 Summer  

Games in Atlanta, Georgia, and three years  later, he made the U.S. National B Team.  

The following year, Phelps, just 15 years  old, became the youngest male swimmer to  

compete at the Olympics in nearly 70 years.  He started breaking records in 2001 and  

continued to do so for several years. When  he competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens,  

he took home eight medals, including six  golds, another history-making moment.

Larisa Latynina put the Soviet Union on the map  in the sport of gymnastics. She is the first  

female athlete to take home nine gold medals  in the Olympics and won 18 medals in total, a  

record she held for nearly 50 years, until Michael  Phelps came along and passed her total in 2012.

Latynina competed at the 1956 summer  Olympics, winning gold medals for the  

floor and vault events. She also won silver  and bronze medals for the uneven bars.  

She competed at the 1960 Rome Olympics, in which  she earned two additional gold medals, as well as  

the 1964 games, in which she won a gold medal for  the floor event for the third consecutive time.

What makes Latynina's career so impressive  is that she won medals in each event that  

she participated in except for one in her 1956  Olympic debut. She's also a standout athlete for  

being the only female to win an all-around medal  for gymnastics in two different Olympic games.

Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi is considered one  of history's greatest long-distance runners.  

He took home a total of nine gold medals  and three silver medals in the 1920, 1924,  

and 1928 Olympiads. Nicknamed "The Flying Finn"  

and "The King of Runners," Nurmi set  25 world records during his career.

Nurmi's unique style of running made him a  superstar, his strides long and his partially  

clenched fists held to his chest. He didn't alter  his pace and was easily able to surpass less  

gifted runners. Nurmi won six of his gold medals  at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and Finland erected  

a bronze statue of a naked Nurmi outside of its  Helsinki Olympic Stadium, an enormous honor.

Swimmer Mark Spitz won two gold medals at the  1968 Mexico City Games and seven gold medals at  

the 1972 Munich Games, in which he competed  in seven events, dominating each one and  

setting world records. The California native  started swimming competitively at age six,  

and he started breaking national records before  reaching the age of 10. Dubbed "Mark the Shark"  

by fellow swimmers, Spitz stunned spectators  after taking home so many gold medals in Munich.

You may also know Spitz for the mustache  he sported while competing in the games.  

He bucked the clean-shaven trend because  he felt that the facial hair gave him luck,  

which was the exact opposite  thinking of other swimmers,  

who believed hair created too much  drag on the body while swimming.

"It deflects the water away from my mouth."

Spitz is considered one of the  greatest Olympians of all time,  

and he also won five Pan-American  golds and set 33 world records.

Also topping the list of world's greatest  athletes is track and field star Carl Lewis,  

who won nine Olympic gold  medals during his career.  

He made history and set records by appearing  in five separate Olympics. Over a decade,  

Lewis won 65 events in a row in the long jump,  an incredible streak in sports history. In 1984,  

he set a record for indoor long jump that  still hasn't been broken. His inspiration  

was Jesse Owens, and Lewis matched Owens'  four-gold medal haul during the 1984 Olympics.

Lewis was 35 years old when he won his  fourth consecutive gold in long jump in 1996.  

This accomplishment resulted in nine total gold  medals, which tied him with Paavo Nurmi, Larysa  

Latynina, and Mark Spitz. Sports Illustrated  writer Rick Reilly said of Lewis at the time:

"Lewis beat age, gravity, history,  logic and the world at a rocking  

Olympic Stadium in Atlanta to win the  Olympic gold medal in the long jump.  

It was quite possibly his most impossible  moment in an impossibly brilliant career."

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen  has won more medals at the winter Olympics  

than any other athlete. The skier has taken  home 15 medals, including eight gold ones,  

and she won five medals in South Korea  in 2018 alone, more than anyone else.  

She started competing internationally in  1999 at the age of 19, and she took home  

her first Olympic medal, a silver, in 2002 in  the women's 4x5 km team relay at Salt Lake City.

Bjørgen officially retired following  the 2018 Olympics, but the thrill of  

competition prompted her to return to the  sport. In 2020, the 40-year-old decided to  

compete in a roughly 55-mile long-distance race  in Sweden. In addition to her Olympic medal haul,  

Bjørgen is an 18-time world champion,  and she won the World Cup four times.

Birgit Fischer is the only female Olympic  athlete to win eight gold medals in kayaking,  

and she achieved this tremendous feat over a  span of two decades. The German athlete started  

kayaking with her older brother when she was just  six years old with the assistance of her father.  

She competed in the 1980 Olympics in  Moscow and, at 18 years old, became  

the youngest kayaker to win a gold medal,  which she did in the K1 500-meter event.  

She then went on to win three World  Championships in a row in 1981, 1982, and 1983.

Unfortunately, Fischer couldn't compete in  the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles because  

Eastern Bloc countries were banned from the  competition. If she had, it's likely her gold  

medal count would be higher than it is today.  She won two golds in Seoul 1988, two more golds  

in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, and two  additional golds in Sydney 2000. Afterward,  

Fischer decided to retire, yet she returned  for Athens 2004 after a three-year break,  

where she clinched her eighth gold medal.  Incredibly, Fischer won her first Olympic  

gold in 1980 and finished with her final  Olympic gold in 2004 - 24 years later.

Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway is another  incredible Olympian who has taken  

home more medals in cross-country skiing than  any other athlete during the winter games.  

Considered one of the greatest  winter Olympians of all time,  

Dæhlie competed in the 1992 Albertville Winter  Games, where he took home a silver medal in  

the 30-kilometer event and three gold medals in  the combined pursuit, the relay, and the 50-km.

Two years later at the Olympics in Lillehammer,  

Dæhlie won an additional four golds on his home  turf. Unfortunately, during the men's relay,  

he experienced a rare loss. He made up  for that in Nagano four years later,  

taking home a gold medal. He has won a total of  12 Olympic medals and has also won five individual  

events at the World Championships. Dæhlie  retired in 1999 after hurting his back while  

roller skating. He had hoped to make a comeback  but was unable to do so following the injury.

Japan was a powerhouse when it came to gymnastics  during the 1960s and 1970s. During this time  

period, Sawao Kato won an impressive eight gold  medals, which is the most any male gymnast has  

ever won. He was a force to be reckoned with  during three Olympiads. During the 1968 games,  

Kato, the team captain, took home the all-around  title, Japan's third consecutive win in the event.  

Even more impressive, three Japanese gymnasts  won four of the five individual events.

During the Munich games in 1972,  Kato retained the all-around title,  

making him just the third gymnast to achieve this  task. He took the gold, while his teammates took  

the silver and bronze medals in the event,  resulting in a Japanese-dominated podium.  

This type of clean sweep of the top  three medals hadn't occurred since 1900.  

Kato also competed in the Montreal Olympics  in 1976, where he was defeated by a Soviet  

competitor for the all-around title. However,  he once again dominated on the parallel bars.  

Kato earned a total of 12 medals  during his Olympic career.

If you're a swim fan, you no doubt know Jenny  Thompson, who has won 12 Olympic medals,  

including eight gold, three silver, and  one bronze. She's won more medals than any  

other woman in the Olympics. At the age of 14,  she competed in the 1987 Pan American Games,  

winning a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle  event. While she didn't qualify for the 1988  

Olympics in Seoul, she appeared in the  following four consecutive Olympiads.

In 1992 in Barcelona, Thompson  took home two gold medals in the  

relay and a silver medal in the 100-meter  freestyle. In 1996 at the Atlanta games,  

she won three gold medals despite having  some problems during the Olympic trials  

and not participating in the final  heat of the 4x100-meter medley relay.

That struggle just pushed her harder, and in  2000 in Sydney, she won three additional relay  

gold medals as well as an individual bronze  medal. Thompson competed in Athens in 2004  

and won two silver medals but not any gold ones,  and then she retired from professional swimming.

Matt Biondi is a highly decorated  Olympian with 11 medals under his belt.  

He started swimming at age five, and  by the time he enrolled in college,  

he was swimming as well as playing water polo.  He competed in his first Olympics in 1984,  

winning a gold medal as part of the  4x100-meter freestyle relay team.

He went on to compete in Seoul  in 1988, winning seven medals,  

including a gold in the 50-meter  freestyle in which he set a world record,  

a gold in the 100-meter freestyle, a  gold in the 800-meter freestyle relay,  

a gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay,  and a gold in the 400-meter medley relay.

Biondi is one of only two people to win  seven Olympic medals at one Olympiad,  

and he won more medals than any  other competitor at the Seoul Games.  

Swimming World magazine once dubbed him U.S.  Olympic Committee Sportsman of the Year,  

as well as Male Swimmer of the  World on two separate occasions.

Ray Ewry might not be as well-known as  other Olympians, but he's definitely not  

less accomplished when compared to the other  highly decorated Olympic athletes in this list.  

After all, he won eight gold Olympic medals.  Ewry contracted polio at the age of seven and  

strengthened his legs with the use of jumping  exercises. When he attended Purdue University,  

he played football and participated in track  events, breaking records in the high jump,  

standing long jump, and standing triple jump.

Ewry competed in four Olympiads; the first  was the 1900 Paris Olympic Games, where he  

won medals in each of the three events in which  he competed. During the 1904 games in St. Louis,  

he took home an additional three gold medals  in the same events, repeating his success.  

At the 1908 London games, he won only two  medals because the standing triple jump  

was no longer part of the competition. Ewry's  record of eight gold medals stood for years.

According to his official website, Usain Bolt is,  

quote, "the most naturally gifted athlete  the world has ever seen." Judging by this  

list of incredible Olympians, he has just a  little bit of competition for this accolade,  

though. Bolt was making a name for himself in  his native Jamaica when he was as young as 14.  

He enjoyed jumping and playing cricket  before participating in track events.

His claim to fame is winning three gold medals  at three consecutive Olympic games. In 2008 in  

Beijing, he won the 100-meter, 200-meter, and  4x100-meter, setting records along the way.  

He repeated the feat in the 2012 London games  and became known as the world's fastest man.

"Man, he's fast."

In 2016, at the age of 29, he once again took  home three gold medals for the same three events,  

achieving what is known as the "Triple  Triple." In addition to his nine gold  

medals, Bolt has taken home 11 World  Track and Field Championship titles.

Check out one of our newest videos right here!  Plus, even more Grunge videos about the Olympics  

are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel  and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.