Top US Olympic Gold Medalists in History

The United States topped the medal table at the 2024 Summer Olympics yet again in Paris this summer, bringing home a total of 126 medals with 40 golds. Despite that number of gold medals being matched by China, Team US had far more silver and bronzes.

While there are numerous US Olympic gold medalists who have secured multiple golds in their disciplines, some athletes stand ahead of others for their achievements. It is almost impossible to argue that Michael Phelps is not the greatest US Olympic athlete of all time – or even the greatest Olympic athlete the world has ever seen – but below him there is a number of greats jostling for positions. In this piece we will name our top five American Olympic athletes ever and shine a lens on exactly what they have done to merit inclusion.

• Top 5 American Olympic Athletes of All Time
• Other Notable US Olympic Gold Medalists
• Michael Phelps
• Katie Ledecky
• Simone Biles
• Mark Spitz
• Carl Lewis

Top 5 American Olympic Athletes of All Time

The greatest US Olympic gold medalists have succeeded numerous times on the world’s grandest stage and in this section we will look at each of our selections in more detail.

Michael Phelps

With an astonishing 23 gold medals and 28 in total, Phelps is the most successful Olympic athlete of all time and clearly the best of the American Olympians in history. Phelps announced his arrival at the 2004 Games in Athens, grabbing six gold medals and a further two bronze medals. His 100m and 200m butterfly triumphs set Olympic records as did his 200m medley gold, while his 400m medley time was a world record. He was a key part of the relay teams in the 4x200m freestyle and 4×100 medley that won gold too.

Amazingly, four years later Phelps went two better and secured eight gold medals in Beijing, with seven of his times setting world records. By this point he was already being talked about as the best swimmer of all time and greatest Olympian ever and maybe even the top athlete in history. Undeterred by his success, the Baltimore-born swimmer followed up his Beijing glory with four gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London and another two silver medals.

He retired from the sport after the Games, insisting he was ‘done’ with swimming, however four years later he was back in the pool representing the US in Rio de Janeiro. Phelps secured five gold medals in Brazil and another silver, afterwards retiring from the sport for good.

The 6ft 4in superstar – who went by the nicknames ‘the Baltimore Bullet’ and ‘Flying Fish’ – got used to smashing records during his career. At his first Olympics in Athens his eight medals tied the record held by gymnast Alexander Dityatin, and four years later he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s record of seven first-place finishes at a single Olympic Games set in 1972.

Outside of the pool, he started his own foundation aiming to grow the sport of swimming and promote healthier lifestyles to Americans, while in 2018 he revealed that he has struggled with both ADHD and depression and even contemplated committing suicide after the 2012 Olympics in London. Phelps – who will turn 40 next year – married former Miss California USA Nicole Johnson in 2016 with the couple having four sons together.

Katie Ledecky

With nine golds and 14 United States Olympics medals in total we have chosen Katie Ledecky in second spot of our top five American Olympic athletes of all-time. She is the most decorated American woman at the Olympics, most successful female swimmer, woman with the most gold medals and fifth-most decorated athlete the Games has ever seen. Born in Washington DC, Ledecky began swimming at the age of six and by 15 she won her first gold at the 2012 Summer Games in London, setting a national record in the 800m freestyle.

Four years later at the 2016 Games in Rio, Ledecky exerted her authority in the pool with four gold medals and another silver to boot. She set world records in both the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle events and was part of the 4x100m freestyle team that recorded a national record despite only being good enough for silver. Her other golds came in the 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay. Ledecky had to wait five years for her next taste of the Olympics (due to the coronavirus pandemic) but secured two golds and two silvers at the Games in Tokyo.

Her golds came in longer-distance events in the shape of the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle, while her silvers were won in the 400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle. Ledecky bagged another two golds, one silver and one bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris this summer, setting an Olympic record on route to gold in the 1500m freestyle. She successfully defended her 800m freestyle gold but could only manage silver in the 4x200m freestyle, with her bronze coming in the 400m freestyle.

Simone Biles

We have included Biles as third in our list of the best United States Olympic athletes ever due to her impact on gymnastics and outside of sport too. She now has 11 Olympic medals to her name with seven golds in total after yet more success in Paris this summer. Growing up in Texas, Biles’ first Olympics came in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 where she secured four golds and a further bronze medal to boot. Her gold medals came in the artistic team all-around, artistic individual, women’s vault and women’s floor competitions, while she took bronze in the balance beam.

Her next Olympic appearance five years later in Tokyo finished fairly disappointingly given expectations going into the Tokyo Games with just silver in team and balance beam, but Biles roared back to her best in Paris earlier this summer with three golds and another silver medal. Her golds came in team, all-around and vault with silver in floor exercise. Aged just 27, fans can expect her to play a significant role at the next Games which will be a home Olympics for Team US taking place in Los Angeles in 2028.

Biles has had a remarkable life even when you don’t take her extraordinary gymnastic feats into account, having been in and out of foster care during her childhood as her birth mother Shanon was unable to care for her or her siblings. Raised partly by her grandfather and Belizean adoptive mother, she switched from school in Texas to home schooling to focus on her training.

She has spoken out about having ADHD and taking Ritalin to treat her condition, while in 2018 revealed how former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar had sexually assaulted her with the team helping to cover it up. In 2022 she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

Mark Spitz

Spitz is another of the American Olympic athletes who shone in the swimming pool, having won nine gold medals and 11 in total during his Olympics career. The man known as ‘Mark the Shark’ to his team-mates won four medals at the 1968 Mexico City Games, with two golds in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays, silver in the 100m butterfly and bronze in the 100m freestyle. However, having predicted he would win six golds, Spitz was frustrated at performance in Mexico and worked even harder ahead of the 1972 Games in Munich.

His efforts paid off handsomely as he beat his own target of six gold medals by landing seven – astonishingly setting a world record in each and every event. On his own he shone in the 100m and 200m butterfly, 100m and 200m freestyle and with team-mates in the 4x100m and 4x100m freestyle relays as well as the 4x100m medley relay.

Unfortunately Spitz was forced to leave Germany prematurely as a result of the Munich Massacre where 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists – as a Jew there was concern for his safety and he was reportedly escorted out of the country by US Marines. Despite being just 22 years of age after the Munich Games Spitz retired from swimming, returning home to land several sponsorship deals and later going on to start a real estate company.

Carl Lewis

The fifth and final athlete on our list of US Olympic gold medalists is Carl Lewis who won nine gold medals (10 in total) during his exceptional track and field career. He excelled in sprinting and the long jump, shooting to prominence at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles where he won gold in the 100m and 200m sprint, 4x100m relay and long jump.

This quadruple success saw him match the achievements of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but the way in which he secured his victories and a public perception of being egotistical didn’t lead to a flood of endorsement deals after the home Games. He had an offer from Coca-Cola rescinded and was dropped by Nike, but did pick up a collaboration with Mizuno.

Four years later in Seoul Lewis landed further golds in the 100m and long jump, coming off the back of a high-profile defeat to Ben Johnson in 1987. Lewis had also been dealing with the loss of his father and repeatedly referenced him as a motivating factor going into the 1988 Olympics, being awarded gold in the 200m after Ben Johnson – who won the race – tested positive for steroids.

Lewis didn’t qualify for the US Olympic 100m or 200m team, finishing fourth behind rising star Michael Johnson but he did make the long jump and 4x100m relay team. In Barcelona in 1992 he won two more gold medals in those events and finished his Games career with another gold in the long jump four years later in Atlanta. After competing in track and field Lewis appeared in a host of TV shows and films and even ran for political office for the New Jersey State Senate.

Other Notable United States Olympic Athletes

Having outlined our top five US Olympic gold medalists that received huge interest at the top online sportsbooks, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the other great United States Olympic athletes who came close to inclusion. In this section we will take a quick look at each one (in no particular order):

• Jenny Thompson – Swimming (8 golds, 12 in total): Thompson is one of the most successful Olympic athletes the US has ever produced with her medals coming across four different Games in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004.
• Caeleb Dressel – Swimming (9 golds, 10 in total): Dressel secured two golds in team events at the Rio Games in 2016, before following that up with five golds at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and another two golds and a silver in Paris earlier this summer.
• Ray Ewry – Jumping (8 golds, 8 in total): Ewry won three golds at the 1990 Paris Olympics, another four in St Louis four years later and a further two in London in 1908 – spread over standing long jump, standing high jump and standing triple jump.
• Allyson Felix – Sprint (7 golds, 11 in total): Felix lit up track and field across five different Olympics’, building on silver in the 200m at Athens 2004 with gold in the 4x400m relay in Beijing four years later and then three golds at London 2012, two golds and a silver at Rio 2016 and one gold and a bronze at Tokyo 2020.
• Matt Biondi – Swimming (8 golds, 11 in total): Biondi appeared in three Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988 and 1992 – winning 11 medals in total with eight golds, two silver and one bronze. At Seoul 1988 he landed five golds and set four world records and an Olympic record in the pool.
• Diana Taurasi – Basketball (6 golds, 6 in total): WNBA superstar Taurasi has shone for Team US at the Olympics, helping them to six successive gold medals in the women’s basketball competition.
• Ryan Lochte – Swimming (6 golds, 12 in total): Lochte is the third-most successful Olympic swimmer in history, behind only Phelps and Ledecky who made our top five. Lochte’s successes came at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games and he also recorded two world record times during Olympic competition.
• Amy Van Dyken – Swimming (6 golds, 6 in total): Van Dyken grabbed four of her six gold medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, making her the most successful female athlete at those games. She battled bad asthma during her childhood and young adult years and suffered a serious accident in 2014 that sadly left her paralyzed from the waist down.