You might know of a certain Michael Phelps. Father of one from Baltimore in U.S.A, occasional golfer, eater of large meals and just about the greatest athlete of all time? The same.
Phelps has been having quite the time at the Rio Olympics. The 2016 games is his fifth Olympics and one that he has worked hardest to reach. Retirement after the 2012 London Olympics forced Phelps into a life of extremes from the depths of which he essayed a comeback that made him the athlete that he is.
But Phelps has never been one to occupy the sidelines of a tournament he is a part of. In true style, he has been smashing records and some of those that he has equalled or broken have been around longer than you think. Here’s a look at the records Phelps has touched and smashed already at Rio.
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The 2,168 year old one:
This one leads the series simply because of how mind-numbingly surprising it is. First tweeted about by Olympic statistics historian Bill Mallon, Phelps’s win in the 200 meter individual medley has made him the new record holder of the most number of individual gold medals. He now has 13, which is one more than the number which no one had equalled for over two centuries.
Back in the year 164 BC (yes, you read that right, this was Before Christ), a sprinter called Leonidas of the ancient city of Rhodes was quite the prolific runner. According to ancient Olympic records set down by Socrates’s contemporary Greek scholar Hippias of Elis, and referenced in Deadspin, Leonidas was quite the star at the time, defending his armoured race medals through successive Olympic games.
Like Michael of Baltimore, Leonidas of Rhodes had amassed 12 individual golds through his career. Unlike Phelps, he did not have two more chances (the 200 meter IM and the 100 meter fly) at the Rio Olympics to surpass this tally significantly. Phelps did not win gold at the 100 fly, but he did seal his claim on the record with a win in the 200 IM.
Some athletes just cannot let sleeping records lie.
Most Team Gold Medals – 9
In winning the 4x200 freestyle relay with team U.S.A, Phelps won his 9th team event gold medal. The win was sweet for Phelps, not only because it came within 70 minutes of his individual butterfly gold, but also because he got to swim in the same team as his long time friend, Ryan Lochte.
This victory means that he has broken his earlier record of eight team golds – a record he shares with U.S. swimming legend Jenny Thompson.
One of the most decorated Olympians, Thompson retired after the Athens Olympics of 2004 with an astounding tally of eight gold medals. Thompson was one of the greatest swimming icons of the nineties and is now a doctor.
Most Olympic medals – 26
This is a record that most of us are familiar with, thanks to the fact that it has also become Phelps’s de facto title.
So, with the most number of team medals and the most number of individual medals, Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian of all time. His 27 medals – 20 of which are gold – automatically makes him the most decorated swimmer of all time as well.
However, this is a record for which the only person Phelps has had to beat has been himself. He has been the holder of most Olympic medals since London 2012 – a record that has only been improved upon with definitiveness in this year's Olympics.
Most Olympic Games appearances – 5
Simply by qualifying to make it to the Olympics at the U.S. swimming team trials in Omaha, Phelps made history as the American male swimmer to have participated in the most number of Olympic games.
Keeping him company with this record is Dara Torres, who swam in five Olympics and held a record that was untouched until Phelps took the Omaha trials by storm.
Most number of Olympic swimming events – 29
Phelps has also broken his own record of the most number of Olympic swimming events that an athlete has competed in. Since his debut as a 15-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Olympics to the 2012 London Olympics, Phelps had participated in 24 events.
At Rio, Phelps has already participated in four more – the 4x100 meter relay, the 200 meter butterfly, the 4x200 meter relay and the 100 meter butterfly. This puts his present total of events at 28.
However, he is also set to participate in the 100 meter butterfly in the next 12 hours. So, when Phelps gets up on the plane to Baltimore after the games, he will still be the American swimmer who has participated in the most number of events in history. Only, his renewed tally will read a whopping 29.
Oldest individual Olympics gold medallist – 31 years
Upon winning the men’s 200 meter butterfly, Phelps has become the oldest individual Olympic gold medalist. He turned 31 during the trials and during the Olympics and when he won the men’s 200 fly, he was 31 years and 71 days old. That is old enough to be the holder of this record.
However, for the course of the Rio Olympics, a palpable threat to this record had been Phelps’s teammate Ryan Lochte and 35-year-old Anthony Ervin.
Lochte turned 32 a week ago and if he had won the men’s 200 meter individual medley, he would have held this record. But now Lochte has been beaten in the 200 IM and this happened to be his only individual event at Rio.
However, while Phelps did break and conquer this record, he held it only for a day until sprinter Anthony Ervin essayed a miraculous comeback and won gold at the men’s 50 meter freestyle this morning. The record of oldest individual gold medalist, though broken by Phelps, is now Ervin’s.
Most number of times an Olympic gold has been defended – 3
Today, Phelps won the 200 meter individual medley with a time of 1:55.78 minutes. Still in the pool after touching the wall and checking his time, he called the drone camera to himself like after his 200 meter butterfly win and showed the number ‘four’ by holding up four fingers. He could have been referring to his current Rio medal tally, or the world record he had broken again.
His fourth gold at this year’s Olympics means that Phelps now has four gold medals from four Olympic Games in the men’s 200 IM. He won gold in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012), and now in Rio.
Phelps is the only sportsperson to have defended a gold medal in the same category three times, i.e. through the course of four Olympic games.
