If Michael Phelps were a Country
Years Active: 2002 to Present
Michael Phelps is an American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time,
with a total of 22 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (18, double
the second highest record holders), Olympic gold medals in individual events (11), and Olympic medals
in individual events for a male (13). In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps
took the record for the most first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Five of those victories
were in individual events, tying the single Games record. In the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps
won four golds and two silver medals, making him the most successful athlete of the Games for the third
Olympics in a row.
Phelps is the long course world recordholder in the 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley as well as the former long course world recordholder in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley. He has won a total of 77 medals in major international long-course competition, totalling 61 gold, 13 silver, and 3 bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. Phelps's international titles and record-breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award seven times and American Swimmer of the Year Award nine times as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in 2012. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.
During the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press as to whether perhaps his feats were "too good to be true", a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps might be taking performance enhancing drugs. In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S. Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines. During the Games, Phelps passed all nine tests that were administered to him. [Source]