Just getting to the Olympics is a feat only a tiny fraction of the world can achieve. Only 0.00013 percent of the world’s population — one in every 757,143 people — is going to Paris to compete in this year’s games, despite 206 different countries sending a representative.
Medaling at the Olympics is an entirely different challenge. Just a bit more than 20,000 Olympic medals have been won in the history of the games. Less than 7,000 of them, naturally, are gold medals.
The extraordinarily small few that have walked away from an Olympics with multiple gold medals are the very best of the very best. A few athletes will join that exclusive club in Paris this year, with swimming, gymnastics and track and field three of the sports that could see one individual walk away with two or more gold medals.
Here’s a look at the record for most gold medals in one Olympics with a trip back to 2008.
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Most gold medals in one Olympics
American swimmer Michael Phelps holds the record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics, with eight in Beijing in 2008. The previous record of seven was held by another American swimmer, Mark Spitz.
Here are the only individuals to win more than five gold medals at one Olympics, including two appearances by Phelps:
| Athlete | Gold medals | Sport | Country | Year |
| Michael Phelps | 8 | Swimming | United States | 2008 |
| Mark Spitz | 7 | Swimming | United States | 1972 |
| Kristin Otto | 6 | Swimming | East Germany | 1988 |
| Michael Phelps | 6 | Swimming | United States | 2004 |
| Vitaly Scherbo | 6 | Gymnastics | Unified Team* | 1992 |
* – Athletes from the fallen Soviet Union competed as the Unified Team in 1992
To put Phelps’ accomplishments in perspective, only nine countries won eight or more gold medals at the 2008 Olympics overall. Phelps alone won more gold medals than each of the remaining 195 countries who sent a representative to the games.
Of course, only a few sports actually allow players to win multiple medals. For example, LeBron James can’t leave Paris with more than one medal. The entire men’s basketball tournament is played for one set of medals, and plenty of other sports operate the same way.
Swimming, like track and field and gymnastics, is different. Phelps excelled in five individual events, and he was able to put those skills to the test as part of relays as well. By completely dominating in 200m freestyle, for example, Phelps won one gold medal on his own and another in the 4x200m relay.
Swimming is one of the few sports that makes it possible to rack up such a high number of medals, but that doesn’t make it easy to do so. Phelps is the only swimmer to win more than five medals in one Olympics in the 21st century, and he’s done it twice.
Michael Phelps 2008 Olympic medals
| Event | Medal | Time |
| 200m freestyle | Gold | 1:42.96 |
| 100m butterfly | Gold | 50.58 |
| 200m butterfly | Gold | 1:52.03 |
| 200m medley | Gold | 1:54.23 |
| 400m medley | Gold | 4:04.84 |
| 4x100m freestyle | Gold | 3:08.24 |
| 4x200m freestyle | Gold | 6:58.56 |
| 4x100m medley | Gold | 3:29.34 |
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Phelps won gold in five individual events and three relay events in 2008, breaking Spitz’s record.
Every single gold medal involved some sort of record for Phelps. Seven of the eight times listed above were world records, the only exception being the 100m butterfly, which was only an Olympic record for Phelps.
Phelps was stellar in 2004, 2012 and 2016 as well, winning a combined 15 gold medals between those three competitions to bring his final total to 23. No one even comes close to Phelps’ 23 gold medals regardless of gender or Olympic season. The next-highest mark is nine.
To no one’s surprise, Phelps’ 28 overall medals are the most by a wide margin as well. No other Olympian has more than 18, and no other American has more than 12.
The U.S. is sending another extremely talented swimming delegation to Paris, but they would be setting themselves up for disappointment if they held themselves to the otherworldly standard set by Phelps.
