Mark Spitz

Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, all in world record time — the greatest single-Games performance in Olympic history for 36 years until Michael Phelps surpassed it in 2008. Across his full Olympic career (1968-1972), Spitz won 9 gold medals total. He was the first athlete in history to win 7 gold medals at a single Games and was selected by Sports Illustrated as one of the 40 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century.