Michael Phelps added another Olympic gold medal to his collection over the weekend as the U.S. finished first in Sunday's 4x100 relay. This was the swimmer's 19th Olympic gold medal and 23rd Olympic medal overall—helping him defend his title as the most-decorated athlete in all of Olympics history.
Phelps was just 15 years old when he competed in his first Olympic Games at Sydney in 2000. Though the swimmer didn't place at the time, he went on to win eight medals (six gold, two bronze) at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, eight more medals (all gold) at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and six medals (four gold, two silver) at the 2012 London Olympic Games. That left him with a total of 22 medals as he headed into the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where he served as a last-minute addition to the U.S.'s relay team. Phelps is scheduled to compete in several more events in the coming weeks, including: the men's 200m butterfly, the men's 200m individual medley, and the men's 100m butterfly.
Phelps' 23 medals leave him five medals ahead of the second most-decorated Olympian of all time, Larisa Latynina, a gymnast who won nine gold medals for the Soviet Union over three different Olympic Games in the 1950s and 1960s. Fellow Soviet Union gymnast, Nikolai Andrianov, follows her with 15 medals.
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Photo Credit: Getty/Xavier Laine;Jean Catuffe
