Most Olympic medals: All-time most successful Olympians
Every Olympian is to be celebrated – but a handful are truly extraordinary.
For many athletes, making it to the Olympic Games is a lifelong goal – an achievement that would be a dream come true in itself.
And for all of those athletes who reach their sport’s biggest stage, only a select few will walk away with one coveted Olympic medal, let alone multiple.
But have you ever wondered who has managed to win not just a few Olympic medals, but the most in history?
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Australian swimmer Emma McKeon is among those looking to break into the elite club of top-five all-time most decorated Olympians as she aims to add to her 11-medal tally in Paris – her final Olympics – while another swimmer, Team USA’s Katie Ledecky, also stands a chance at that feat with her current haul of 10 medals.
But as things stand ahead of Paris 2024, read on for RadioTimes.com’s list of the top-five most successful Olympians in the history of the summer Games.
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Athletes with the most Olympic medals
5. Paavo Nurmi (and more) – 12 medals
Heading into the Paris 2024 Olympics, it is currently a nine-way tie for the title of fifth-highest medal count at a summer Olympic Games.
Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi edges just above the rest of that pack, by way of having the most gold medals (nine) out of his total haul between the 1920 and 1928 Olympics. Nicknamed the “Flying Finn”, Nurmi set 22 official world records from the 1,500m to the 20km during his 14-year career and was never beaten in the 10km or cross-country events.
Also accruing 12 medals across their Olympic career was German canoer Birgit Fischer, who between 1980 and 2004 won eight gold and four silver medals.
Joining Nurmi and Fischer with the tally of 12 career Olympic medals of varying colours (followed by their active years) are Japanese gymnast Sawao Katō (1968-1976), German equestrian Isabell Werth (1992-2020) – who could yet add to that count in Paris – and Russian gymnast Alexei Nemov (1996-2000) as well as a quartet of American swimmers: Jenny Thompson (1992-2004), Ryan Lochte (2004-2016), Dara Torres (1984-2008) and Natalie Coughlin (2004-2012).
4. Boris Shakhlin, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Takashi Ono – 13 medals
The pack thins as we step one more rung up the all-time rankings, where there are three athletes currently tied for fourth on the all-time summer Olympic Games medal table.
First up is former Soviet Union gymnast Boris Shakhlin, who grabbed 13 medals (seven gold, four silver, two bronze) across seven different events at his three Games between 1956 and 1964.
Italian fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti, also with 13 total Olympic medals under his belt, won two of his six golds 24 years apart, having first won the team épée event at Berlin 1936 before returning to the top of the podium in Rome in 1960.
Takashi Ono, meanwhile, claimed 13 medals for Japan in various Olympic gymnastics events between 1952 and 1964 – one of which was a joint gold with Shakhlin in the vault at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
3. Nikolai Andrianov – 15 medals
The man who passed Shakhlin to become (at one time) the male athlete with the most Olympic medals now ranks third in the all-time tally.
A former Soviet and Russian gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov won his 15 medals (seven gold, five silver, three bronze) across three summer Games between 1972 and 1980, with the five pieces of silverware picked up at his final Olympics taking him past Shakhlin to be crowned the most decorated male Olympian in history – a title he held for nearly three decades.
2. Larisa Latynina – 18 medals
Sixty years on from her last Games, former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina is still the most successful female Olympian in history.
Latynina won six medals at each of her three Olympic appearances between 1956 and 1964 for a combined career tally of 18 (nine gold, five silver, four bronze) that made her the winningest Olympian of all-time… until the next and final entry in our list came along.
1. Michael Phelps – 28 medals
No-one compares.
Double digits ahead of any other athlete in history, American swimmer Michael Phelps holds the record for the most Olympic medals of all time with an astonishing tally of 28 medals (23 gold, three silver, two bronze) on the world’s grandest sporting stage.
Phelps – one of the indisputable ‘greatest of all time’ (GOATs) in any sport – also holds the record for most gold medals in a single summer Olympics for his historic eight-from-eight performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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