Best Swimmers of All Time

The best swimmers of all time have won Olympic Gold medals, set world championship records, and helped to make the sport of swimming what it is today. Michael Phelps stands out on this list. Some of the swimmers are long retired while others, like Katie Ledecky, are still competing.

Mark Spitz

Mark Spitz was born in 1950 and became known as ‘Mark the Shark.’ He won eight US National Collegiate Athletic Association titles and 31 Amateur Athletic Union titles. At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, he won seven gold medals. This record stood until Michael Phelps beat it in 2008. Spitz won nine Olympic gold medals altogether between 1968 and 1972. He also won a silver medal and a bronze medal and was named World Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971, and 1972. During his career, he set 33 official world swimming records.

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Matt Biondi

Biondi was born in 1965 and didn’t take up swimming until he was in high school. He won eight Olympic gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal in the course of his career. He also set 12 individual world records. He is a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Following the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, he retired from international swimming and became a motivational speaker.

Ian Thorpe

Ian Thorpe was born in 1982 and became a force in middle-distance freestyle in the early 2000s. The Australian swimmer with the nickname ‘Thorpedo’ had long, powerful strokes that prioritized efficiency and endurance.

He won five Olympic gold medals, three silver medals, and one bronze medal. The swimmer set records in 200m and 400m freestyle. He was Swimmer of the Year four times and the youngest male swimmer to ever hold this title. Thorpe has also won eleven World Championship gold medals.

Michael Phelps

Michael Fred Phelps was born in 1985. He has won 16 Olympic medals. This includes six gold and two bronze medals at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics.

Phelps has won the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times and the American Swimmer of the Year award eight times. He also has many international titles and record-breaking performances. He has a total of fifty-nine medals from major international competitions. According to the official Michael Phelps biography, he is arguably the greatest Olympian ever.

Johnny Weissmuller

Johnny Weissmuller was born in 1904. This Austro-Hungarian-born American was a swimmer and later became an actor. He won five gold Olympic medals and one bronze medal. Over his career, he set 67 world swimming records and came first in 52 US National Championships. After his swimming career, he gained popularity in the role of Tarzan in 12 movies.

Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin was born in 1982 and started swimming when she was eight years old. She went on to become one of the most decorated female swimmers in history. She won three gold Olympic medals, four silver medals, and five bronze medals. She was named World Swimmer of the Year once and American Swimmer of the Year three times. Natalie was the first female swimmer to swim the 100-meter backstroke in less than a minute.

Katie Ledecky

Katie Ledecky was born in 1997 and is widely considered one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. She made her Olympic debut at the tender age of fifteen. The swimmer has seven gold Olympic medals and three silver medals. She dominated the 800m freestyle from 2012 to 2024 and holds the world record in the 800m and 1500m freestyle. The swimmer enjoys activities like hiking when she has any spare time. Ledecky also has 21 world championship gold medals and has been World Swimmer of the Year five times.