Players such as North American Caleb Dressel or Brazilian Rebecca Andrade gain attention for achieving the feat of taking the podium more than once at the Olympic Games. But today it is not the case that the number of super athletes is impressive. The most infamous case is that of Michael Phelps, the greatest of all medalists. The retired swimmer has 28 medals, 23 of which are gold, and, if considered a country, would be ranked 39th in the added medal tally across all editions of the event – by comparison, Brazil is ranked 35th. .
People On the question of winning Olympic medals, they conducted a survey of the number of history-making Olympic athletes and compared them to the pictures of the nations participating in the Games in which they made history. Phelps emerged in 2008, when he won eight golds, the same as Italy’s. Only nine other countries, such as China, Russia and, of course, the United States, are above North American, having “defeated” France, Spain, Canada, Cuba, Brazil and dozens of other countries.
However, the best situation in history would not be Phelps in 2008. It belongs to another American swimmer Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Only the Soviet Union (50), the United States (of which 33, 7), East Germany (20), West Germany (13), Japan (13) and Australia (8) fared better. Spitz still lags behind Poland, with all the athletes added, with 7 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze.
To show the weight of a super-athlete in the delegation, the most emblematic case would be Jamaica’s multi-champion Usain Bolt. The sprinter won three golds at Beijing-2008, London-2012 and Rio-2106, but lost one of them after doping by her colleague Nesta Carter in the 4x100m relay. As a result, he competed in 8 of the 22 Olympic titles in Jamaica’s entire history. The Caribbean country has 78 medals at the Games; 77 comes from athletics.
Other super-athletes have also made their mark over the years. One of the most infamous was Jesse Owens in Berlin–1936. They won four gold medals and would be the 12th best country in that Olympics, in which Brazil did not even win. Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci would be 12th in Montreal–1976, the same place as Soviet Larisa Latinina in Melbourne–1956.
At Rio-2016, the medalist was another gymnast, Simone Biles, who won three gold medals and would be 22nd at the time. In Tokyo-2020, the one who should finish as the “individual champion” is swimmer Caleb Dressel, the owner of five diamonds. If it were a nation, it would be ranked 16th by the end of the 12th Olympics, just above Brazil.
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