Michael Phelps last night won his 11th gold medal, the most ever won by a single Olympic athlete. Here’s a look at some other great Olympic athletes.
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Carl Lewis won 10 Olympic medals, including 9 gold in his track and field career.
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Jesse Owens, also a track and fielder, made history when he won four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4×100 meter relay team, during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
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Mark Spitz, an Olympic swimmer, is one of few athletes to ever win a gold medal in every individual event he competed in and to set a world record in each event.
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Paavo Nurmi is a Finnish middle- and long-distance runner who won nine gold and three silver medals after competing in 12 events in the Olympics from 1920 to 1928.
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Larissa Latynina is a former Soviet gymnast who was the first woman to win nine Olympic gold medals. Latynina also holds the record for winning the most medals ever at the Olympics, with a total of 18 (nine gold, five silver and four bronze).
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Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals in track and field during the 1960 Rome Olympics, becoming the first American woman to do so in a single Olympics.
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Edwin Moses, also a track and field athlete, won gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, he set the world record for his event four times.
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Bruce Jenner won a gold medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics in the decathalon. He also is known for running a spontaneous victory lap with an American flag that was handed to him by a bystander.
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Rafer Johnson won the gold medal in the 1960 Rome games in the decathalon.
