The Ultra-Exclusive Club of Olympic Athletes Who Have Won More Than Eight Gold Medals
Winning an Olympic gold medal is already rare, and winning eight or more is nearly impossible. Even so, across all eras of the Games, a handful of competitors have achieved this. These athletes left legacies that continue to inspire future generations.
Michael Phelps and His Record 23 Gold Medals
Image via Wikimedia Commons/Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil
Having won 28 medals, including 23 golds, Michael Phelps remains unmatched as the most decorated Olympian ever. His performance at Beijing 2008, where he claimed eight golds in eight events, still stands as the greatest single-Games achievement. Thirteen of his golds were individual, while the rest came in relays.
Discussions often point out that swimmers have more medal chances than most athletes, yet Phelps’s scale of dominance is not common even in swimming. No one else has approached his total despite sharing those opportunities. His range across freestyle, butterfly, medleys, and relays shows both versatility and longevity.
Larisa Latynina and the Gymnastics Legacy
A young gymnast from Ukraine became the face of Soviet dominance in the 1950s and 1960s. Larisa Latynina excelled across three Games, mastering floor, vault, beam, and bars while also anchoring her nation in team events. Gymnastics required adaptability across very different apparatuses, yet she stayed competitive in all of them while winning 18 Olympic medals, nine of which were gold.
Her combination of strength and elegance matched the sport’s demands of that era. Latynina’s total medal record stood until Michael Phelps broke it in 2012, though her nine golds continue to secure her place among the greatest Olympians in history.
Paavo Nurmi And the Flying Finn Era
Image via Wikimedia Commons/German Federal Archive
The Flying Finn earned his nickname by dominating distance running in the 1920s. Paavo Nurmi collected nine Olympic gold medals and three silver medals. At the 1924 Paris Games, he famously won the 1500 and the 5000 meters on the same afternoon.
His disciplined training methods shaped future generations of athletes and helped Finland forge its identity in distance running. Over three Olympics, he sustained world-class performance.
Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis as American Icons
Mark Spitz made his mark by winning nine gold medals in swimming, seven of them at the Munich 1972 Olympics alone. At just 22 years old, Spitz retired, partly because athletes of that era were not allowed to earn professional sponsorships.
Carl Lewis, another American legend, also achieved nine gold medals and excelled in sprints and the long jump. His long jump record is particularly extraordinary, as he won gold in the event at four consecutive Olympics between 1984 and 1996.
Together, Spitz and Lewis highlight two paths to reaching the nine-gold mark: one through an intense but short career, and the other through sustained excellence. Both remain iconic figures in Olympic history and American sporting culture.