Michael Phelps

The most decorated Olympian in history: 23 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze—28 total medals across the 2000–2016 Olympics—and a staggering 39 world records in swimming. At the 2008 Beijing Games alone, he won 8 gold medals, a feat no athlete has matched since. This performance outperforms #2 Larisa Latynina's 18-medal career by 10 medals, and his single-Games gold haul is nearly twice the 5-gold peak of #4 Mark Spitz. Phelps also holds the record for most individual Olympic golds (13), and his 28 total medals are 17 more than the average of the top 10 on this list.