If you want to win a lot of gold medals at an Olympics, you can be Johannes Klaebo, the cross-country skier who won all six of his events at the 2026 Milan Games. His latest was the gold on Saturday in the 50-kilometer mass start individual race.
Otherwise, maybe be a swimmer.
Here’s a list of top gold medalists in modern Olympic history.
Eight golds
Michael Phelps, 2008
The king of the Olympics is, of course, Michael Phelps.
His peak came in 2008 in Beijing when he won an astonishing eight swimming gold medals: one in freestyle, two in medleys, two in butterfly and three in relays.
It’s very helpful when your country is also the best at your sport. Had Phelps been from, say Myanmar or Ecuador, taking those relays would have been a lot tougher.
Case in point, the most thrilling of Phelps’s golds, the 4×100 freestyle relay.
Phelps swam leadoff and was actually out-touched by an Australian, Eamon Sullivan. By the time of the fourth leg, though, it was the French who were threatening to take away the United States’ and Phelps’s gold.
It took a miraculous rally by Phelps’s teammate, Jason Lezak, to win the gold by a whisker.
Seven golds
Mark Spitz, 1972
The benchmark Phelps bested was set by Mark Spitz, who was seven-for-seven in 1972.
Or make that seven-for-seven-for-seven. Besides winning the gold medal in each of his events, he also broke all the world records.
Like Phelps, Spitz captivated the American public and gained endorsement deals and fame.
But a few days after his final swim, the good feelings were derailed by the kidnapping and eventual death of 11 Israeli hostages at the Games.
Six golds
Phelps, 2004
Three athletes had previously hit the six golds that Klaebo reached on Saturday. One was, well, Phelps.
There was talk of seven or even eight golds that year as well.
Entered in the same events as he would be in 2008, Phelps came up with bronze in the 200 freestyle and the 4×100 freestyle relay. But he won the other six.
Six golds
Kristin Otto, 1988
Otto was part of East Germany’s final Olympic team before the reunification with West Germany. The nation’s athletes, especially the women, were often accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.
Some confessed, but Otto was never implicated.
What is beyond doubt was that Otto, a sprint specialist, swam extremely fast. She was also remarkably versatile, winning golds in freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and relays.
Six golds
Vitaly Scherbo, 1992
And, hold on, a non-swimmer!
Scherbo dominated gymnastics at the Barcelona Games.
He won the horse, the rings, the parallel bars and the vault. He also won the individual all-around and the team event as part of the “Unified Team,” the successor to the Soviet Union. (He was Belarusian.)
If you’re wondering where the female gymnastic stars like Nadia Comaneci are on this list, remember they are limited by having only four individual apparatus events to compete in, not six, like Scherbo and the men.
Six golds
Klaebo, 2026
Klaebo is simply the greatest male cross-country skier ever.
He is so famous that eight years ago, they named a hill after him in South Korea — the famed Klaebo bakken, which broke just about every cross-country skier who faced it (who was not named Klaebo).
Three golds in Pyeongchang, two in Beijing, and now six more in Milan: the skiathon, the sprint, the individual, the mass start and two different relays.
That gives him 11. Second overall behind Phelps’s, gulp, 28.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
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