Michael Fred Phelps, popularly known as Michael Phelps now has 21 Olympic Gold medals, after helping the United States win the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay title on day four in Rio Olympic 2016. The 31-year-old American now has 25 Olympic medals in total in his entire career.
Everyone including the USA basketball team was cheering Phelps, as he won a tight close 200m butterfly race over Chad le Clos. It was Phelps’s 20th Gold medal. Just an hour later he won another Gold medal after winning the 4x200m freestyle relay.
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Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time and also holds the all-time records for Olympics Gold medals and Olympic Gold medals in individual events.
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Way back in 2000, Phelps debuted in the Sydney Olympics at the age of 15. He became the youngest male from the US Olympic swim team in 68 years. He did not win a medal that time but did make the finals and finished fifth in the 200 metres butterfly event. From the 2004 Athens Olympics, he started his ‘Golden’ journey. He won 6 gold medals in Athens. After that he bagged 8 Olympics Gold medal in the Beijing Olympics 2008 and 4 Golds in London.
After the end of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. He wanted to continue his work with his foundation after the 2012 Olympics, which he had said would be his last Olympics. But In April 2014 Phelps came out of his retirement and he qualified for Rio Olympics 2016, his fifth Olympics.
Michael Phelps on all-time Olympics medal table
A selected all-time Olympics medal table shows that Michael Phelps is in 34th position ahead of many countries like India, which has a population over 1.2 billion. There are 206 nations with athletes competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Phelps has more gold medals than 170 of those nations - more than 80%
Rank | Name of the country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
1 | United States (minus Phelps) | 964 | 763 | 673 | 2400 |
2 | Great Britain | 236 | 276 | 271 | 783 |
3 | France | 204 | 226 | 24 | 677 |
32 | Brazil | 23 | 31 | 55 | 109 |
34 | Michael Phelps | 21 | 2 | 2 | 25 |
38 | Jamaica | 17 | 30 | 20 | 67 |
45 | India | 9 | 6 | 11 | 26 |
