The 2016 Rio Olympics commenced this week and already Michael Phelps has another few gold medals to add to his already large collection. Thus far he’s taken gold in the 200 m butterfly, 4×100 m freestyle and the 4×200 m freestyle, making that 21 Olympic golds for the 31 year old Maryland native.
Currently Phelps is the gold medal leader in all of Olympic history by a wide margin, the second highest being Larisa Latynina from the Soviet Union with 9. Larisa competed in gymnastics, earning a total of 18 medals throughout the years of 1956-1964.
In 2008, during the Beijing Summer Olympics, Phelps overtook Mark Spitz for most gold medals won in a single Olympic Games with 8. A record that had stood at 7 since 1972.
This weeks “Sports Metric of the Week” takes a look at gold and overall medal totals to see just how ahead of the pack Michael Phelps is when compared to all other competitors throughout history.
