Michael Phelps Breaks 2000-Year-Old Olympic Record

Before the Rio 2016 Olympics, after winning 21 Olympic gold medals, 26 world championship titles, and setting 38 world records, everyone thought that American swimmer Michael Phelps had nothing left to achieve. However, Phelps' 22nd gold medal at the 2016 Olympics, as reported by The Guardian citing Malone Fund, one of the record keepers of the Olympics, has altered other records as well. This 195 cm tall American swimmer won his 13th individual gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley, and according to Fund, he broke the record for the most individual gold medals by both men and women in Olympic history. When we talk about history, we are not only referring to the modern Olympics; this record-keeping also includes the ancient Olympics. In 152 BC, Leonidas of Rhodes, Greece, managed to compete in athletics in four consecutive Olympics, winning 12 gold medals. This record had remained untouched for two thousand years, and now, it is Phelps who has broken the record of this ancient runner by winning his 13th gold. Given this, no one knows how many decades, centuries, or even millennia it will take for another genius athlete to surpass the record that took 2000 years to break by Michael Phelps in 2016 at the Rio Olympics. Phelps has a total of 23 Olympic gold medals.