Athens 2004 is when he first won medals at an Olympics. Winning 6 gold and 2 bronze medals, claiming 3 Olympic records and 2 World records. His dominance in the pool continued as he won 17 gold medals from 2005 to 2007.
2008 Beijing would be where Phelps really showed the world what he could do. Although he always kept his goals a secret there was always a suspicion that he would attempt the impossible and try to break the record for the most gold medals won in a single games. This record being held by Mark Spitz with 7. He achieved 6 medals, the 7th in controversial style when he beat Milorad Cavic by 1/100 of a second. Phelps's 8th gold rested on the shoulders of the relay team of Brendan Hansen, Aaron Piersol and Jason Lezak. They didn't disappoint breaking the World record giving Phelps his record 8th gold at one Olympics.
Phelps continued to rack up gold medals winning a further 14 from 2009 to 2011. Coming into the 2012 Olympics people would be excused for thinking that Phelps was in the twilight of his career being 27 this time around. He didn't do much to prove people wrong in his first race only placing 4th in the 400m individual medley. He would turn this around and in the end winning 4 gold and 2 silver medals. Not the performance you would expect but he did break the all time record for most medals won in Olympics in all sports. Breaking the previous record of Larisa Latynina and winning 22 overall thus making him the most decorated Olympian of all time. A humble man in victory and defeat he is a deserved holder of the title of greatest Olympian of all time. Now retired Michael Phelps has achieved 71 medals in all competition, 57 gold, 11 silver and 3 bronze just proving that he is the greatest swimmer the world has ever seen.
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