"Do not be scared to dream as large as you can." Michael Phelps did not suddenly find himself with 28 Olympic medals, 23 of which were gold. He had them all along! The only thing that kept him from being a perfect 30-for-30 was because of how many bronzes he got in Beijing.
Phelps first competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He won eight gold medals and one bronze medal at these Games. The most he's ever won at one Olympiad is 9 medals - also in Beijing. That record will likely be broken this year when he plans to try for 10 medals at the 2012 London Olympics.
Phelps has participated in more than 100 events during his Olympic career so far. He has won more than half of them - 52 medals to be exact. Only 12 other athletes have won as many or more medals as Phelps. They are: Carl Lewis, Leonid Shtchutko, Mark Spitz, Bjorn Borg, Liu Xiang, Marion Jones, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jimmy Blackman, Donovan Bailey, and Paul Hogan.
Phelps currently lives in Missouri and trains with the University of Southern California Trojans. He plans to stay with them through at least the end of the current season in 2015.
By the sheer quantity swimming Olympic medals won, Michael Phelps is undoubtedly the greatest Olympian of all time. His 28 medals throughout five games are unparalleled, and no other Olympic athlete comes close to his 23 gold medals. The 36-year-old Baltimore native was born to swim. He had an uncanny ability from an early age to perfect difficult strokes that allowed him to dominate his sport from the beginning. As a child, he could do backflips in the pool while others were still learning how to walk. It's no wonder he loved the water from an early age.
Phelps made his official debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games when he was just 15 years old. He went on to win eight gold medals at those inaugural Olympics, including a record-breaking seven straight wins in the 100m butterfly event. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Phelps expanded his trophy case with another six golds, this time breaking Mark Spitz's record for most gold medals by any single athlete at a single edition of the Games.
From 2004 to 2008, Phelps didn't even compete in any Games due to military service. When he returned for the 2012 London Olympics, he not only regained his title as the best swimmer in the world, but also became the first person to win more than one medal per game. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, Phelps reclaimed his title as king of the podium with 21st victory in a row.
Michael Phelps is an American swimmer who has won the most Olympic medals of any athlete (28), including 23 gold medals and 13 individual golds. He is currently ranked number one by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) with more than $1 million in career winnings.
Phelps began swimming at the age of three when he moved to Florida with his family. He trained daily under a renowned coach who taught him to swim backward as a form of self-defense against alligators. At the age of 11, Phelps was given a silver medal by the U.S. Olympic Committee after he participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, but he declined the award because there were no American swimmers available at the time of the event.
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, Phelps became the youngest male swimmer ever to win five gold medals when he defeated rivals from Australia, Canada, and Germany. He is only the second man to do so after Russian Vasiliy Lipinets with six.
After graduating from high school, Phelps attended the University of Texas at Austin where he studied industrial engineering. However, he left college after winning his first eight races during his freshman year. He then went on to dominate international swimming with seven consecutive world championship titles from 2000 to 2006.
Baltimore, Maryland, United States Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is a former competitive swimmer from the United States. With 28 medals, he is the most successful and decorated Olympian of all time. He is also the only man to have won gold medals in both swimming events at the same Olympics.
Phelps's achievements have made him one of the most recognized athletes in the world. He has been named the greatest athlete of all time by Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and The New York Times among others.
He began swimming at a young age and soon became involved in several local teams. By the age of 11, he was training with the Baltimore Stars Swim Team, where he met his future coach, Bob Bowman. During his high school years, he helped lead Columbia High School to three consecutive State Championships. In addition to swimming, he played football and baseball.
After graduating from high school, Phelps attended North Carolina State University, where he swam for the NC State Wolfpack team. At NC State, he became the first person to win five individual Olympic gold medals. He left after two seasons to pursue a career as a professional swimmer.
In 2008, Phelps returned to college to complete his degree in sports management. Since then, he has won more than 20 additional national championships.
Phelps, Michael Although Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, who else has won eight or more gold medals in the Summer Games? Phelps' 23 gold medals, along with three silver and two bronze, were earned during four Olympic Games, from Athens in 2004 to Rio in 2016. He remains the only person ever to win multiple gold medals in one event at one Olympics: eight overall in 2008. The next highest total among living athletes is Walter Dix's six gold medals from 1920 to 1928. In total, only twelve people have won gold medals at the Olympics.
Of the fourteen people who have won five gold medals or more at the Olympics, ten are men and four are women. Charles Lindbergh is the only athlete to win five gold medals at one Olympics when he did so in 1928. He also holds the record for most gold medals awarded by a single country at the Olympics: Germany's Carl von Ossietzky won three gold medals in 1936.'
Here is a list of the most successful Olympians of all time: Phelps, Michael (USA); Johnson, Paul (USA); Avery, Charlie (USA); Simpson, Walt (USA); Hurd (USA); Gardner, Bob (USA); Hamilton, Dave (Canada); Abbott, Doug (Canada); Carr, Cliff (Canada).
The most successful Olympian of all time is American swimmer Michael Phelps.
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