Top 5 Olympic Swimmers

With an incredible 67 medals between them, including 48 gold, here are the 5 most successful Olympic swimmers of all time.

Join us as we count down the top 5 swimmers in Olympic history for Aquatics Week. Featuring the most decorative Olympic athlete, these 5 swimmers have become synonymous with the Olympic games due to their achievements in the pool.
_____________________________________________________

[majesticmuffin]

Wow. Phelps now has 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them GOLD.  I don't think anybody will every be able to do that.  HE IS A LEGEND

[MysticNessly]

Holy cow. I didn't realize how successful Phelps is at the sport!

[easyawesomemagic]

Update:
Michael Phelps: 23 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze
Ryan Lochte: 6 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze

[patrickmurray]

1. Phelps
2. Thorpe
3. Peaty
4. Popov
5. Sun

[juliekeast]

Top 5 United States swimmers. Come on...seriously? No mention of Thorpe, Popov and others?

[blackdivision]

Please call it "Top 5 Olympic Swimmers from the States".

I miss Thorpe and Popov, who had changed swiming completly!

[voidler]

Best thing to ever happen to Phelps was Ian Thorpe retiring early

[modusvivendi]

The US swimmers all have tons of medals because the US is the deepest and almost always at least medals in the relays, and usually wins them.

Winning a relay medal is an impressive accomplishment, but the list of swimmers with the most individual medals is a better measure of the best of all time. E.g. Jenny Thompson had a great career, but she's not in the same class as Egerszegi, de Bruijn, Klochkova, or Katie Ledecky for that matter.

[roxy]

You should do top 5 most decorated Australian swimmers at the Olympics.

[fernlin-healy]

Krisztina Egerszegi really should be on this list. It's unfair to overlook her because she didn't come from a country that could win relay medals. I believe she has the highest female total for individual gold medals. She also won her first gold at the age of 14 and throughout her career beat swimmers who were later caught doping.

[geetadhumane]

Well Phelps is so ahead of all of He is extraordinary

[cariadroberts]

Make that 21 gold!! He's a machine 😆

[aronm]

1. Michael Phelps
2. Cesar Cielo
3. Florent Manaudou
4. Caeleb Dressel
5. Mark Spitz

[stephaniebattison]

Un updated version would be great. Feel like Adam Peaty would push out Lochte. Also some of the women competing today are absolute beasts. Katie Ladecky & Tatiana Schoemaker (apologies if it's misspelled) for example.

[tiffanynguyen]

I like seeing how a while ago when doing dives they have both feet lined next to each other, but now one is in frint and other is in the back

[sopherino]

This just proves that America has the best swimming program

[tiaramowery]

when I grow up I wanna be an Olympian swimmer!!😊

[anty]

I think it is unfair to rate swimmers on medals tally only. Obviously Americans have a big advantage cause they are clearly the strongest team with the most depth and almost every relay is a guaranteed gold while others have to rely mostly on individual events.
My top-5 best swimmers ever (male)
1. Phelps
2. Spitz
3-5. Biondi, Michael Gross, Ian Thorpe
So 3 americans in the top-5 still not bad)

[davidneuberger]

Michael phelps minden idők legnagyobb csalója!

[yunalouv]

I hate loosing
-michael phelps