The 2010s saw many great sportsmen claiming the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all time) status within their sports.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in association football; Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic in tennis; LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in basketball; Tom Brady breaking tons of individual and team records in the NFL … and the list goes on.
None of them, however, managed to break a record that lasted for thousands of years. Well, except maybe one very special athlete: Michael Phelps.
Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time, after winning his 13th individual Olympic title in the 2012 Summer Olympics. By doing so, he broke a 2168-year-old record that was held by an ancient Greek athlete named Leonidas of Rhodes.
Michael Phelps has won a total of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them being gold. He’s literally ahead of several nations in the all-time medal table.
