Nobody needs any convincing that Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time, but we’d like to share something outrageous in case we’re wrong on that count.
With 23 career gold medals, Phelps would rank No. 38 all time if he were measured against all other nations that have ever competed in the Olympics, summer and winter combined, per Greg Myre of NPR.org.
But as Myre points out, even that crazy stat doesn’t do Phelps justice.
“…four of the countries ahead of him are Germany, which over time has competed as Germany, West Germany, East Germany and the Unified German Team. Russia, the Soviet Union and and the 1992 Unified Team (made up of the 15 former Soviet republics) account for three more countries ahead of Phelps. If measured against the 205 countries now in Rio, the Republic of Phelps has more gold medals than all but 32 of them.”
Additionally, Phelps managed to break a nearly 2,200-year-old record with his 13th individual gold medal last week in the 200m individual medley. As we covered when he won his 12th, he had tied Leonidas of Rhodes when he won the 200m butterfly.
Whats even crazier about this is the fact that Phelps is still just 31-years old and the fact that he didn’t win a single medal when he competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
While the record-holding swimmer has made it clear he doesn’t intend to race again in 2020 when the Games are held in Tokyo, Japan, we’d sure love to see him come back for one more go-round.
Then again, we’re selfish and don’t have to subject ourselves to the relentless training required to compete at such a high level.