Phelps, The Gold Standard

by Felix Richter, Statista.com
-- this post authored by Martin Armstrong
31 year old Olympian Micheal Phelps has taken his incredible tally of gold medals to 21.
With now twelve more than the next most successful Olympic athlete, Larisa Latynina - A gymnast from the Soviet Union competing at the games between 1956 and 1964 - Phelps is certainly justifying his return in Rio after his post-2012 retirement.
Not only does the swimming legend outclass all other athletes when it comes to going gold, Phelps even has a larger haul than some countries. As the chart below shows, with 21 gold medals, he has singlehandedly beaten the all-time gold medal tallies of countries such as Austria, Jamaica and Argentina. While this is more than likely to be his last summer games, over the last four and a bit Olympics he has achieved something truly astonishing - and it's not over yet.
This chart compares the total all-time gold medal hauls of selected countries to that of US swimmer Michael Phelps.




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