Most Decorated Olympians In the World

Ranked: 

Athletes 

with the 

Most 

Olympic 

Medals

Ranked: Athletes with 

the Most Olympic 

Medals

While athletes compete in the Paris 

Olympics for gold medals and records, 

one title is still far from being taken: the 

most victorious Olympic athlete of all 

time.

With total 28 medals, American swimmer 

Michael Phelps is considered the GOAT. 

But who else joins the decorated list, and 

which of those athletes are still active?

Here are the top nine athletes by the total 

number of Olympic medals won. Figures 

were sourced and are accurate as of 

August 5, 2024.

Phelps is Oceans 

Ahead

Phelps made the Olympics at 15 years 

old, becoming the youngest U.S. 

swimmer in 68 years, and finished 5th in 

the 200 meter butterfly strokes.

Since then, the most decorated athlete of 

the modern era has stood at the highest 

spot of the podium 23 times, 2.5 times 

more than any other athlete. His 28 total 

medals put him 10 ahead of Soviet 

gymnast Larisa Latynina, who is second 

on the list.

Country	Athlete	Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
🇺🇸 U.S.	Michael Phelps	Swimming	23	3	2	28
☭ USSR	Larisa Latynina	Gymnastics	9	5	4	18
🇳🇴 Norway	Marit Bjørgen	Cross-country skiing	8	4	3	15
☭ USSR	Nikolay Andrianov	Gymnastics	7	5	3	15
🇺🇸 U.S.	Katie Ledecky	Swimming	9	4	1	14
🇳🇴 Norway	Ole Einar Bjørndalen	Biathlon, cross-country skiing	8	4	1	13
☭ USSR	Boris Shakhlin	Gymnastics	7	4	2	13
🇳🇱 Netherlands	Ireen Wüst	Speed skating	6	5	2	13
🇮🇹 Italy	Edoardo Mangiarotti	Fencing	6	5	2	13

Latynina is considered one of the 

greatest in the sport’s history. She won a 

record 18 Olympic medals, including 9 

golds, across three Games from 1956 to 

1964.

The ‘bronze’ medal on our list goes to 

Marit Bjørgen. The Norwegian cross-

country skier won 15 Olympic medals, 

including 8 golds, during her career from 

the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City 

to the 2018 Winter Games in 

Pyeongchang, and set numerous records 

in World Cup events.

Katie Ledecky recently became the most 

decorated U.S. female Olympian of all 

time, claiming her ninth gold medal at 

Paris 2024.

By nationality, the list is dominated by 

Soviet athletes (Larisa Latynina, 

Nikolay Andrianov, Boris Shakhlin), 

with two athletes from Norway 

(Marit Bjørgen, Ole Einar Bjørndalen), 

two from the U.S. (Michael Phelps, 

Katie Ledecky), one Dutch athlete 

(Ireen Wüst), and one Italian 

(Edoardo Mangiarotti).

●Singapore's first Olympic medal was won by Tan Howe Liang, who won silver in lightweight weightlifting in 1960 Summer Olympics. 

●The first and to date only Olympic gold medal was won by Joseph Schooling in the men's 100 metre butterfly at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

● In table tennis, Jing Junhong, Li Jiawei and Yu Mengyu came close to winning medals by finishing in fourth place for the women's singles events at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 2004 Athens Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics respectively.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Singapore sent its largest contingent at that time, since it first participated, and was considered the best prepared to win a medal. Li Jiawei, together with Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu, beat the South Korea Women's Table Tennis team, composed of Dang Ye-Seo, Kim Kyung-Ah and Park Mi-Young 3–2 in the semi-finals, assuring Singapore of at least a silver medal and ending Singapore's 48-year Olympic medal drought. Singapore faced host China in the gold medal final and lost in straight sets but won the silver medal.

In the 2012 London Olympics, Feng beat Kasumi Ishikawa from Japan 4–0 in the table tennis women's singles bronze medal match, winning Singapore's first individual Olympic medal in 52 years since Tan won the silver medal at the 1960 Rome Games. In the table tennis women's team bronze medal match, Li, together with Feng and Wang, beat the South Korea team composing Dang Ye-Seo, Kim Kyung-Ah and Seok Ha-Jung 3–0, winning another bronze medal. The two bronze medals won at the 2012 London Summer Olympics marked the first time that Singapore won more than one medal in an Olympiad.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Olympic swimmer Joseph Schooling won a gold medal in the Men's 100 metre butterfly in an Olympics record of 50.39 seconds, becoming the first gold Olympic medallist of Singapore. This was also the first gold medal by a Southeast Asian male swimmer and the first Olympic gold that Singapore achieved. During the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, Singapore sent 23 athletes to the Games but did not manage to win any medals.

In the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder won a bronze medal in the Men’s Kite category at the age of only 17, coming behind second place Toni Vodišek from Slovenia and first place Valentin Bontus from Austria. This makes Maximilian Maeder the youngest individual to win a medal in the Olympics from Singapore.

Athletes from Singapore have won a total of 6 medals at the Olympics including 1 gold.