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Record #00269Sports archive

Most Olympic Gold Medals Won by an Athlete

American swimmer Michael Phelps won 23 Olympic gold medals from 2004 to 2016, the highest career gold-medal total of any athlete in modern Olympic history.

Archive status
Verified · current
Last updated
2026-10-29
Category index
Sports

ARCHIVE VISUAL / 01

NOT TO SCALE

Current Record

23gold medals

Current record value

Holder
Michael Phelps
Location
—
Start date
2016-08-13
Record status
Verified · currentReport an issue
OverviewRecord historyRelated recordsSources

Overview

Archive Note

Phelps competed at five Summer Olympic Games from Sydney 2000 to Rio 2016, although he won no medals at Sydney. He began collecting Olympic gold medals at Athens 2004 and achieved a historic eight-gold performance at Beijing 2008.

After briefly retiring following London 2012, Phelps returned for Rio 2016, winning five gold and one silver medal. His career total reached 28 Olympic medals: 23 gold, three silver and two bronze.

This record specifically counts gold medals, unlike the separate all-medal Olympic record. Because the achievement accumulated across Games in multiple host cities, no single venue represents the entire record.

Key information

Gold medals
23
All Olympic medals
28 (23 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze)
Olympic appearances
2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
Most golds at one Games
Eight at Beijing 2008
Final gold medal
Men's 4 × 100 m medley relay at Rio 2016

Record history

1 Milestones
  1. 2016-08-1323 gold medalsMichael PhelpsCurrent Record

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Sources

Evidence & References
Source IDSourcePublisherLink
SRC-001Olympic HighlightsOfficialENRecord topicInternational Olympic CommitteeSRC-002International Olympic Committee Rio 2016 official reportOfficialENCurrent recordInternational Olympic Committee

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